July 3, 2000
By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
You don't have to be the
gambling type to bet that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire--the
latest in the enormously popular children's books by J.K. Rowling--will
debut at the top of the New York Times best seller list.
But before long, it will
be on the newspaper's new children's best seller list, which makes its
debut July 23. As of then, all books aimed at kids, including the Potter
volumes, will appear only on the children's list.
"The time had come to clear
up some slots on the best seller lists," says Catherine Mathis, a Times
spokeswoman. "The Harry Potter books have done very well, and the first
three are on the list right now. When the children's list is implemented,
this will free up the category for three more [adult] books."
With a first printing of
3.8 million copies, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire--which will
be in bookstores Saturday--surpasses even best sellers geared for adults.
By comparison, a first printing for a John Grisham novel ranges from 2.4
to 2.8 million copies, according to Publishers Weekly.
Currently the Times compiles
best seller lists for fiction, non-fiction and "advice, how to and misc."
for hardcover and paperback books. The children's best seller list would
be for hardcover books only. And kids' books won't appear on any other
Times list.
So come July 23, the first
Potter book--Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, currently on
the paperback best seller list for fiction--will fall off the charts.
Some bookstore owners are
dubious about lists in general.
"Sometimes people will see
a book on a best seller list and will come in and ask for it," says Ann
Christophersen, co-owner of Women & Children First in Andersonville.
"But what usually happens with us is they'll ask us to recommend a good
children's book, and that's what they'll buy."
Parents such as David Greenberg,
the father of two young Potter fans, hope the list will expose them to
more books.
"My gut reaction," says
Greenberg, who lives downtown, "would be that if something generated enough
appeal to reach that list, there's probably something to it."
Adds Jay Rehak of Lake View,
``I don't really screen my daughter's books per se. But if my wife and
I took a look at the list and saw something we weren't already familiar
with, we would probably take a second or third look at it and give it a
chance.''
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