SOURCE: “The Harry Potter Halo,” in Publishers Weekly, Vol. 246, No. 29, July 19, 1999, pp. 92–4.

In the following review, Maughan contends that the increasing popularity of hardcover fiction is due in part to the success of the “Harry Potter” books.

What are kids clamoring for these days? Believe it or not, it's hardcover fiction. Sure, young people have always been drawn to great books, from Charlotte's Web to Redwall to The Golden Compass. But since last fall, middle-grade and young-adult readers, including both girls and—gasp!—boys, have been buying and reading new hardcovers like never before. And, according to many children's book experts, at least one catalyst for this trend is the unprecedented success of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books.

With 800,000 copies in print and 30 weeks spent on the New York Times Bestseller list, the first title, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, published in the U.S. in...