http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4683503.stm
Potter blunder as fans await book
A store in Edinburgh has apologised after putting the latest Harry Potter
book on shelves early, allowing customers to read copies.
Newsround Online reporters were able to read key parts of the book when it
went briefly on display in HMV.
The store said it was an honest mistake and took the book off display as
soon as it realised its error. No-one was allowed to buy the copies.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is released worldwide at 0001 BST.
Fans are expected to queue at bookshops in 15 countries - including the
UK, US, Brazil and the Philippines - as they hold late night openings and
Potter parties.
About 50 fans have already begun queuing outside the Waterstone's store in
London's Oxford Street, many dressed as witches and wizards.
"The atmosphere is amazing," said Rose-Marie De Koning, 19, who travelled
from Roosendaal in the Netherlands for the event.
"There are a lot of fans here and lots of new friends being made. London
is Harry Potter town."
The official launch is being held at Edinburgh Castle where Rowling will
read from the book, in front of 70 children who won competitions set by
newspapers across the globe.
The cub reporters will be collected from a reception at the City Chambers
by 12 carriages drawn by black horses adorned with black ostrich plumes.
Fire-eaters and jugglers will line the Royal Mile as they proceed to the
castle, whose Queen Anne building has been dressed to resemble the
entrance hall of Harry's school Hogwarts.
Rowling will read from the first chapter of her book at 0001 BST, with
live footage shown on a large screen for more than 1,000 other children
outside the castle.
The same footage will be broadcast live at Barnes and Noble bookshop in
Manhattan, where actor Jim Dale - who reads the audio versions of
Rowling's books in the US - will host one of 5,000 US launch parties.
At Mount Prospect, Illinois, more than 10,000 fans will participate in a
range of Potter-related activities, while in New York, the world's biggest
toy shop - Toys R Us in Times Square - will be transformed into the
Hogwarts Academy.
Other countries, including India, Australia and New Zealand will also hold
events to mark the occasion.
Saturday is expected to become one the biggest book-buying days of the
year, with 10 million copies set aside for the US market.
It is anticipated that more than two million copies will be sold in the UK
alone.
The Royal Mail says it has been inundated with internet orders for Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
More than 150 extra trucks will distribute copies from retailer warehouses
to 1,400 delivery offices.
But the run-up to the book's release - the penultimate in the series - has
not been problem-free.
One boy in the US, Sylum Mastropaolo, was sold a copy of the book by
mistake on Monday, but he and his parents returned it to the shop.
A court order was issued in Canada banning the disclosure of the story's
contents after a number of the books were sold by mistake.
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