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New Potter Book: Hype Hitting Peak for Saturday Release

Aired June 16, 2003 - 15:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Is it a literary event? Maybe. It's certainly a publishing event, "Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix," This is "Harry Potter.4" It releases Saturday. No, .5, excuse me.
It's the fifth book by J.K. Rowling. It's so hard to keep track, she is so prolific. And the young fans of the fictional wizard just can't wait. And we will just have to go along for the ride.

The U.S. publisher has ordered an initial printing of, get this, 8.5 million copies. Sorry, Hillary, Harry beat you by a long shot there. The "Potter" books keep getting longer.

This one is 896 pages -- 896 pages geared for kids who are elementary to middle school age. It made the cover of this week's "TIME" magazine, and the editor of ours, Nancy Gibbs, wrote the article "The Real Magic of Harry Potter." She joins us live from New York.

Good to have you with us.

NANCY GIBBS, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: All right, Nancy. What's the secret to "Harry Potter"? You had some interesting insights I thought in the article. Why don't you share them with the audience?

GIBBS: Well, we went actually to kids and parents and teachers all over the country asking what it was about these stories that accounted for the extraordinary popularity of these books. There have been lots of books written that are full of witches and wizards and unicorns and magical things. And yet this one really is unique.

And I think the kids themselves summarize it best. They say that J.K. Rowling seems to understand better than anyone else they've ever read what it is like to be a kid. And it's as though she isn't describing a magical world that she has invented and populated with characters. It's as though she's taken kids someplace real, sort of pulling back the curtain on this world and introducing children to people that she's actually met.

They find it so completely real and believable. And then they tend to bring back from the reading the book something that makes them braver or stronger or better. And I think that's why parents tend to be so grateful for what their children take away from these stories. O'BRIEN: Yes. And the other point that you make that I think is good, and it's on the same theme, is that she allows Harry to have some failings. And he's not the superhero in the untouchable sense. He's so approachable that it's something a young reader can identify with.

GIBBS: You know, all of her characters, none of them is perfect. All of them have failings. And she clearly loves them not in spite of their flaws, but partly because of them. And for kids, especially for adolescents who are so aware of all the ways in which they're not perfect, having these characters who are also not perfect, and yet whom you admire and embrace, I think is very empowering for kids.

O'BRIEN: You know this is just a phenomenon. It really shows no sign of letting up. How long will she continue turning these things out?

GIBBS: Well, she actually outlined a series of all seven books before she started to even write the first one. She had in her head a plot that would carry Harry Potter through his seven years of school. So this is his fifth year. And there are two more books to come.

And I've been told that she actually has written the last chapter of the last book and locked it away somewhere. So this whole story is in her head, and it just comes out one long book at a time.

O'BRIEN: And then at the end of seven, what does Ms. Rowling do?

GIBBS: Well, you know, if she were capable of creating a kind of narrative that was anything like this, I think generations of children would have even more reason to be grateful. But what she has done with these books have left kind of a mark that no other author really can match. And so I think she could retire very happily and never have to write another one.

O'BRIEN: Harry Potter and the hunt for a good college or something? Harry Potter and the hunt for a job. It could continue, I suppose.

It's a phenomenon that has become such a financial success. How much of that is hype and how much of that is deserved by what's inside those pages?

GIBBS: You know, the first book that she wrote she sent to dozens of publishers, and it was rejected. And when the publisher finally picked it up and did 500 copies, she thought that that was a wonderful thing. The entire success of that book came from word of mouth among kids.

You know, kids who read it told their friends, and so Harry became a hero to kids not because of some publishing industry advertising machinery. It's because kids found the book so wonderful that they wanted more and they told their friends. And so that's why each printing has gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. This was very much something that kids shared with one another before, I think, all of the grownups got involved in having to try to sell them. O'BRIEN: Makes it all the better. Nancy Gibbs, "TIME" magazine. It's a great read. I invite you check it out.

It's on the cover. And it's all about "Harry Potter," now with the fifth version out there. Nine hundred pages. And those kids...

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Are you really reading these, or just your kids?

O'BRIEN: Yes, I'm diving in a little bit.

PHILLIPS: Checking them out?

O'BRIEN: Because I just like to know what they're up to. And they love them.

PHILLIPS: It's changed from the books that you and I used to read.

O'BRIEN: Yes. In some ways, but in some ways it's recurring themes, you know?

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired June 16, 2003 - 15:50   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Is it a literary event? Maybe. It's certainly a publishing event, "Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix," This is "Harry Potter.4" It releases Saturday. No, .5, excuse me.
It's the fifth book by J.K. Rowling. It's so hard to keep track, she is so prolific. And the young fans of the fictional wizard just can't wait. And we will just have to go along for the ride.

The U.S. publisher has ordered an initial printing of, get this, 8.5 million copies. Sorry, Hillary, Harry beat you by a long shot there. The "Potter" books keep getting longer.

This one is 896 pages -- 896 pages geared for kids who are elementary to middle school age. It made the cover of this week's "TIME" magazine, and the editor of ours, Nancy Gibbs, wrote the article "The Real Magic of Harry Potter." She joins us live from New York.

Good to have you with us.

NANCY GIBBS, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: All right, Nancy. What's the secret to "Harry Potter"? You had some interesting insights I thought in the article. Why don't you share them with the audience?

GIBBS: Well, we went actually to kids and parents and teachers all over the country asking what it was about these stories that accounted for the extraordinary popularity of these books. There have been lots of books written that are full of witches and wizards and unicorns and magical things. And yet this one really is unique.

And I think the kids themselves summarize it best. They say that J.K. Rowling seems to understand better than anyone else they've ever read what it is like to be a kid. And it's as though she isn't describing a magical world that she has invented and populated with characters. It's as though she's taken kids someplace real, sort of pulling back the curtain on this world and introducing children to people that she's actually met.

They find it so completely real and believable. And then they tend to bring back from the reading the book something that makes them braver or stronger or better. And I think that's why parents tend to be so grateful for what their children take away from these stories. O'BRIEN: Yes. And the other point that you make that I think is good, and it's on the same theme, is that she allows Harry to have some failings. And he's not the superhero in the untouchable sense. He's so approachable that it's something a young reader can identify with.

GIBBS: You know, all of her characters, none of them is perfect. All of them have failings. And she clearly loves them not in spite of their flaws, but partly because of them. And for kids, especially for adolescents who are so aware of all the ways in which they're not perfect, having these characters who are also not perfect, and yet whom you admire and embrace, I think is very empowering for kids.

O'BRIEN: You know this is just a phenomenon. It really shows no sign of letting up. How long will she continue turning these things out?

GIBBS: Well, she actually outlined a series of all seven books before she started to even write the first one. She had in her head a plot that would carry Harry Potter through his seven years of school. So this is his fifth year. And there are two more books to come.

And I've been told that she actually has written the last chapter of the last book and locked it away somewhere. So this whole story is in her head, and it just comes out one long book at a time.

O'BRIEN: And then at the end of seven, what does Ms. Rowling do?

GIBBS: Well, you know, if she were capable of creating a kind of narrative that was anything like this, I think generations of children would have even more reason to be grateful. But what she has done with these books have left kind of a mark that no other author really can match. And so I think she could retire very happily and never have to write another one.

O'BRIEN: Harry Potter and the hunt for a good college or something? Harry Potter and the hunt for a job. It could continue, I suppose.

It's a phenomenon that has become such a financial success. How much of that is hype and how much of that is deserved by what's inside those pages?

GIBBS: You know, the first book that she wrote she sent to dozens of publishers, and it was rejected. And when the publisher finally picked it up and did 500 copies, she thought that that was a wonderful thing. The entire success of that book came from word of mouth among kids.

You know, kids who read it told their friends, and so Harry became a hero to kids not because of some publishing industry advertising machinery. It's because kids found the book so wonderful that they wanted more and they told their friends. And so that's why each printing has gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. This was very much something that kids shared with one another before, I think, all of the grownups got involved in having to try to sell them. O'BRIEN: Makes it all the better. Nancy Gibbs, "TIME" magazine. It's a great read. I invite you check it out.

It's on the cover. And it's all about "Harry Potter," now with the fifth version out there. Nine hundred pages. And those kids...

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Are you really reading these, or just your kids?

O'BRIEN: Yes, I'm diving in a little bit.

PHILLIPS: Checking them out?

O'BRIEN: Because I just like to know what they're up to. And they love them.

PHILLIPS: It's changed from the books that you and I used to read.

O'BRIEN: Yes. In some ways, but in some ways it's recurring themes, you know?

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com