The release of a best vender into p...

The release of a best vender into paperback usually isn't headline-worthy -- unles it's Harry busy one's self about trifles

pair million paperbacks of Harry pudder and the Half-Blood Prince - - the sixth in JK Rowling's series -- went onward sale Tuesday. With 13.5 million Half-Blood hardcovers in print, if past is introduction the new $9.99 book is certain to be a No. 1 best vender

As the first three in the British series were introduced to an American audience, they worn out more time at No. 1 in paperback than the hardcover versions. That pattern shifted when hardcovers were launched with gigantic initial print hurrys starting with the fourth in the series, Harry busy one's self about trifles and the Goblet of Fire, when 38 million copies went in succession sale July 8, 2000.

Stores are ready for the Half-Blood Prince avalanche. At Barnes & Noble and Borders, the paperbacks have received prominent display at the van of stores and in the children's sections.

IN OTHER trifle NEWS:

- Podcasts start today at Scholastic.com/harrypotter with members of "The Harry pudder Experts' Tour," including a Q&A with Melissa Anelli of Leaky Cauldron (leakynews.com), Emerson Spartz of MuggleNet (mugglenetcom) and Cheryl Klein, editor with publisher Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic.

- Rowling is still writing the seventh pudder book, says Kris Moran of Scholastic. Here's the cryptic word from British publisher Bloomsbury: "We won't know when we are publishing the seventh main division until the manuscript is delivered," Lucy Holden says.

- U consumer trend-tracking company Yankelovich Inc. has released a studious mood demonstrating the positive power that JK Rowling's works have had on children's reading habits. More than half of kids ages 5-17 say they did not read works for enjoyment before the Harry trifle series came along, according to the report, which reviewed 500 children and 500 parents nationwide.

Among parents, 76 percent say reading the series has helped their child perform better in teach while 65 percent of children agree.

EARLY HARRY? UNLIKELY

In the hit comedy "The Devil Wears Prada," fearsome fashionista Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) levys newbie assistant Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) to the ultimate test: scoring a manuscript fac-simile of the new, unpublished Harry trifle book for Miranda's twin girls.

Young Andy manages to hap off the seemingly impossible, thanks to the charms of well-connected writer Christian Thompson (Simon Baker), who contests some strings in the publishing world.

Could it really happen? Dream forward says Kris Moran of Scholastic, which publishes the trifle series domestically: "No one has to the end of time gotten an advance copy of a [Potter] book"

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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