The new Harry Potter book is flapping through the windows of the world like an urgent owl delivering a magical message.
Harry Potter & The Cursed Child (Parts 1 & 2) is a play as well as a story bound in book form, and it is released globally this weekend. It was written collaboratively by Potter inventor J.K. Rowling, acclaimed playwright Jack Thorne and award-winning theatre director John Tiffany.
The play has been on stage in London's West End theatre district since June, and the book (it is a script treatment, not a novel) is the next way the new story satiates the immense appetite of Potter fans.
Books & Company brings the fun to Prince George with a special late-night event this weekend.
"From 10 p.m. on July 30 until 1 a.m. on July 31, we'll be hosting the witches and wizards of P.G. for games, photos, tea leaf reading, a costume contest, and a few other magical activities," said bookstore spokesperson Kayli VanderMeer. "We'll have the books available for sale at midnight. We're expecting a big turnout. We'll also be open during the day on Sunday to make sure all the Potter fans are able to get their copy."
A special sale on discount books will also be underway, to help bibliophiles pass the time until the witching hour.
The plotline of the new story is set 19 years after the last Harry Potter adventure.
Despite being a hit play, remarkably little about the story's details have been leaked out into the public, as fans of Potter commit to treating other fans to the element of surprise.
The book's publisher gave this as the only hint in advance of the book's release:
"It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three school-age children. While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places."
