World and people

NEW YORK - A 9-year-old boy in upstate New York
got a rare early peek at the new "Harry Potter" book this week
after a store accidentally put it on sale before Saturday's
launch date, but agreed to give back the copy after reading
only a few pages.

But J.K. Rowling's U.S. publisher Scholastic Corp. said the
boy's family had quickly reported the breach of the strict
sales embargo and returned the copy of "Harry Potter and the
Half-Blood Prince," which is being released around the world on
July 16.

"They're a wonderful family; they contacted us and they're
sending the book back," Kris Moran, director of publicity at
Scholastic in New York, told Reuters.

Millions of copies of the sixth book in the best-selling
series about the boy wizard have been shipped to stores around
the United States but Moran said this was the first report of a
leak in the United States.

Last week a store near Vancouver briefly put the book on
sale, but Raincoast Books Ltd., which distributes the books in
Canada, won a court injunction barring buyers from disclosing
the plot.

The Poughkeepsie Journal reported that 9-year-old Sylum
Mastropaolo from Rosendale and his mother Mandy Muldoon had
come across the book while shopping on Monday evening.

"It's pretty amazing," the boy was quoted as saying, adding
that he had read only a couple of pages. "Millions and millions
of people around the world are waiting for this book."

Moran said the publisher would send a book and a special
package of Harry Potter merchandise to the family to thank them
for sending the book back.

Mike Muldoon, Sylum's stepfather, said they had decided to
return the book because it was "the right thing.

"We don't want to ruin it for other kids and take away from
the experience of everyone reading it together," the
Poughkeepsie Journal quoted him as saying.

The store took the books off the shelves within hours but
Moran said it was not certain whether any more copies of the
book had been sold.

"I think it probably was an honest mistake," she said.

# posted by Mike @ 11:17 PM