The wait is over

At last the sixth Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince," has been released. Prior to the book release 12:01 a.m. Saturday several bookstores around Bloomington hosted Potter parties to celebrate the world of wizards, magic and reading. \nWhile there were plenty of children running between bookshelves, their robes drifting behind them, their homemade wands leading the way, there were just as many parents, college kids, and toddlers in attendance who were equally eager for the latest book. The Potter craze has spellbound people of all ages, from three-year-olds wearing wizards' hats, college kids wearing hand-painted Hogwarts t-shirts and an elderly man wearing the signature Hogwarts' maroon and gold scarf as he roamed the bookstore with his grandson. \nAlthough it may have looked as though each little wizard dressed in cloaks and carrying broomsticks was ready to go trick-or-treating, Halloween is an event that comes once a year. For several of the children, their love of the Harry Potter books, movies and fan culture is something they celebrate year-round. \n"For my birthday, I had a Harry Potter party," said 10-year-old Allison Wilson. "I got a Harry Potter poster signed by all the characters and a wand. Everyone was talking so much during the party, but when they saw what I got they just got silent! Everyone just kept staring at my gifts and asking if they could touch it." \nKat Stonecipher, the winner of Border's costume contest, has been planning her costume for the party ever since the last book was released. While most children dressed up as the book's three most popular characters, Harry, Ron and Hermione, Kat chose to dress up as one of the moving portraits from the book. The portraits move and talk to the Hogwart's children as they pass through the halls and stairways. \nCarrying a large picture frame in front of her face, Kat said, "Last year I was dressed up as a girl in Slytherin. It was so not good enough, I didn't win anything! Two days after that, I got this idea and I've been waiting all year to do it." \nKat wasn't the only one preparing months in advance for the latest Harry Potter installment. \n"We have been planning this event since the first of the year," said Gary Rains, an assistant manager at Barnes and Noble Booksellers. \nWhile counting down the hours before midnight, the children scurried from one station to the next to make their own wands, have their fortunes read and participate in an owl hunt. \nAll of the planning for the event paid off. Barnes and Noble had more Potter-lovers than ever before at this year's party. \n"Attendance has consistently been increasing each year. This has been by far the busiest Harry Potter event we've ever had," said Rains.\nBorders also experienced a flood of families at its Potter party. \n"It's hard to say how many people were there because so many people were in and out, but at our peak I'd say we had about 1,000 people there," said Dulcie Holtz, the general manager at Borders bookstore.\nMany of the families in attendance Friday night said they come year after year for the parties. \nAt last year's Potter party, Kate Raphael, age nine, won a free copy of the fifth book for winning a Hermione Granger look-alike contest. Her mother, Mary Peckham, said they had attended several Potter parties as the books progressed.\n"We went to a different book release party for Harry Potter and they were doing Harry Potter trivia from the books. They actually ran out of trivia questions, so the kids had to make up their own questions. It was amazing how much detail they remembered," said Peckham. \nPerhaps even more excited than the kids were to receive their new book were the parents thrilled that their children were so entranced by reading. \n"Anything that gets the kids reading a 750-page book is great," said Wendy Wilson, who wore a Harry Potter hat herself. "My daughter is in second grade and she really wasn't into reading, but her teacher read Harry Potter out loud in class, and she's loved it ever since." \nNick Cullather took his family to Howard's bookstore for their "Bring Your Own Pillow" party where the children watched the "Prisoner of Azkaban" movie prior to the midnight book release. \n"I have two kids. For my son Joey, Harry Potter is the only fiction that he reads. He's a very left-brained kid, so he usually reads sports and science books," said Cullather. "They were still very excited all week though. It's all they've talked about, they went to Potter camp all week, and they wanted to watch all of the movies all over again." \nAlthough some of the children at the Potter parties are too young to read the lengthy books, that doesn't stop them from getting excited. Angela Floyd brought her son Nathaniel to the party at Borders. \n"He doesn't read the books yet. Some of the mature content is a little too old for him, but we get the books on CD and listen to them on trips, and he just loves the movies," said Floyd.\nWhen it comes to deciding between the Potter books or the Potter movies, the majority of children said without hesitation that the books were much better. \n"I definitely like the books better because they're so detailed and so thick. It's going to take forever to finish," said Arin Stonecipher.\nWhether it's the books they love or the movies, everyone has their favorite character. The majority of girls said Hermione was their favorite, each echoing one another by saying it was because she was so smart. Others like Kate Raphael said they like Harry Potter best, "because he's cute and adventurous." \nWith a broom on his back, a hand-drawn scar on his forehead and a Quiddich uniform on, Var Brynildssen said his favorite character was Hagrid. "I like Hagrid because he's fat! No ... because he's always there for Harry," he said.\nBy 12:01, when the sixth book had finally been released and each little wizard had a copy in hand, it was well past most of their bedtimes. However, for some children, like 13-year-old Hadley Crohn, the night wasn't about to end there. \n"I'm going to go home and stay up all night to read it"