The Herald, Sharon, PA Published Tuesday, July 11, 2000

SHENANGO VALLEY

Pages vanish from Harry Potter book

By Beth Baumgardner
Herald Staff Writer

Millions of children across the globe are fulfilling teachers’ dreams and perplexing their parents this summer day by reading a book more than 750-pages long.

But that may change when they get to Chapter 6 of J. K. Rowling’s "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."

David White, 10, of Allentown, spent his weekend eagerly reading the latest adventures of young wizard Harry Potter.

But when he reached the end of Chapter 5, it seemed about 30 pages vanished under Harry’s invisibility cloak, according to the Associated Press.

Employees at Zany Brainy, the Whitehall Township bookstore where White purchased his book, found about 10 other copies with pages 51 to 82 missing and duplicate pages after page 114, according to the Associated Press.

While no other bookstores seem to be affected, that may be because most readers haven’t worked their way through the hefty 752-page book.

"I don’t think anyone has gotten that far (to Chapter 6) yet," said Brenda Truchan, manager of the BookSource, Hermitage.

Truchan said problems like missing chapters and duplicate pages happen occasionally. In these cases, the books can be exchanged.

Zany Brainy has replaced all faulty books it sold, according to the Associated Press.

Employees of Waldenbooks in the Shenango Valley Mall were not aware of any printing errors in any Harry Potter books sold. The store does have an exchange policy if customers receive a faulty book.

But those whose books are missing pages may actually be luckier than the millions of muggles with an intact Harry Potter tale.

"Hey, those books would be worth more anyway," Truchan said. "I wouldn’t return it."

The 3.8-million print run of the Potter book made it the largest first printing in publishing history, according to the Associated Press.

Local children and their parents literally camped out at the BookSource to get their copy, which officially went on sale 12:01 a.m. Saturday.



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