...if Rowling doesn't get off the dime soon, will Richard Harris and Maggie Smith will live to finish the film cycle?

In related news, Harry's tardy appearance for class has affected Scholastic Inc.'s revenues. The company isn't hurtin', though. This excerpted from an article in Publishers Weekly (7/29/2002, p10):

A $118 MILLION decline-to $82 million-in Harry Potter sales and lower sales in its Literary Place basal reading program, which the company is phasing out, resulted in a 2.3% decline in total revenues, to $1.92 billion, at Scholastic for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2002. But with $45 million in cost reductions, earnings at the company improved, with net income rising to $94.3 million from $36.3 million (excluding extraordinary items in both fiscal 2001 and 2002, net income increased 18.3%, to $98.1 million).



In the Scholastic unit most affected by Potter's absence, the children's book publishing and distribution group, revenues fell 4.3%, to $1.17 billion. The division was able to partially offset the loss in Potter sales through a 9% increase in book club sales and an 18% gain in book fair revenues.
(c) Jim Milliot, 2002
accessed through EBSCOhost on PA POWER Library



Scholastic has managed to purchase Troll Book Fairs, thus nearly cornering the market on elementary school book fairs. These book fairs are small miracles of fundraising and put low-cost books in the hands of many children who never get to a book store. Our public school PTOs all sponsor book fairs, including one at the middle school. They take their profits in kind, giving books to classroom collections and providing a coupon to each child to "spend", up to a certain amount which floats from year to year, for a book of their choice. A local college's education department sponsors one that's open to the public in the late spring. I'm considering sponsoring one to be held in the library in late July or early August for a week.

There's nothing quite like letting a child pick a book to own and to keep for sparking interest in what's between the covers.

Regards--
Mary Anne