SOURCE: “Keeping Up with Harry,” in Publishers Weekly, Vol. 246, No. 44, November 1, 1999, p. 36.

In the following review, Maughan describes the marketing of the “Harry Potter” books and the resulting reading frenzy.

As the industry's traditionally busy fall continues apace, Harry Potter is clearly the runaway story of the season. J. K. Rowling's first two books about wizardry student Harry have been riding high on the New York Times bestseller list for months, but with the release on September 8 of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (which promptly joined its predecessors in bestsellerdom) and the paperback of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, fans—and the media—have been truly whipped into a frenzy. In the past six weeks, the junior wizard's face has graced the cover of Time, and Rowling and her books have been featured on “60 Minutes,” the “Today Show” and the “Rosie O'Donnell Show,” where Prisoner...