Before you read any further, you might want to take the "7 signs you're infected with Harry Potter fever" test, based upon submissions from Today Show viewers.

Do you have the fever?

Read on, Muggle.

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The American publisher of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is taking legal action against two companies for violating the book's embargoed release date. The BBC reported that "Scholastic sued online retailer DeepDiscount.com for breaking the strict embargo of 21 July. In court papers filed in Illinois, the publisher also named its distributor Levy Entertainment for failing to ensure books were not sent out." 

Scholastic is seeking "unspecified damages from the two companies for 'complete and flagrant violation of the agreements that they knew were part of the carefully constructed release of this eagerly awaited book.'"

Earlier in the week, Scholastic had confirmed that as many as 1,200 copies of the book were mailed to DeepDiscount customers. 

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Claiming that it wants to make Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows "affordable for children," British retailer Asda Group, which is owned by Wal-Mart, "will sell the final installment of the Harry Potter series for just 5 pounds [$10], just over a quarter of the recommended retail price," according to the Associated Press (via the International Herald Tribune).

Asda had apologized to Bloomsbury earlier in the week for accusing the publisher of "holding children to ransom" over the price of the book. Bloomsbury subsequently canceled the supermarket chain's order for 500,000 copies, but reinstated it after the apology and payment of a disputed bill.

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A preemptive review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times, drew a "stinging response" from J.K. Rowling.

According to Reuters, Rowling said she was "staggered that some American newspapers have decided to publish purported spoilers in the form of reviews in complete disregard of the wishes of literally millions of readers, particularly children. I am incredibly grateful to all those newspapers, booksellers and others who have chosen not to attempt to spoil Harry's last adventure for fans."

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The Washington Post, which still plans to honor the embargo, interviewed William Collier, an Atlanta engineer who had ordered an advance copy of the book from DeepDiscount. The Post reported that "when the book arrived four days early, Collier took immediate and responsible action: He placed it on sale on eBay with a reserve price of $250. Collier said the book was purchased yesterday by an editor at Publishers Weekly. Editors at Publishers Weekly could not be reached for comment."

The Post also noted that "in lieu of further details, Collier responded by offering for $300 a written account of his story, which he'd sentimentally titled, 'I Was an eBay Voldemort.' The Washington Post declined."

Oddly as part of a story about Harry Potter leaks and the ethics involved, yesterday's PW Daily interviewed Collier at length about his experience--but neglected to mention what happened to his copy of the book. At the end of a later story about eBay pulling Collier's listing after a complaint from J.K. Rowling's literary agent, a Publishers Weekly website story confirmed that PW had bought the book from Collier for $250.

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Harry Potter has had a profound impact upon children around the world, but Reuters noted that in India, privilege has its advantages. When HP7 is released Saturday, "children in select Indian homes will be sleeping in miniature castles, complete with fortress, turret and stone-effect loft bed versions of the Hogwarts castle. Many less fortunate ones will be selling Harry Potter toys, tattoos and merchandise on the streets of India, demonstrating the all pervading reach and influence of the Potter phenomenon."

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Courtney Lanahan and Shawn Gordon will have a limo waiting Friday night at 11:30 p.m. to rush them from their wedding reception to Barnes & Noble at Clackamas Town Center, Portland, Ore., where they will be first in line to pick up a copy of HP7, according to the Associated Press (via the Worcester Telegram & Gazette).

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The Scrooge of Pottermania? Margery Eagan's column in the Boston Herald called "I wish Harry Potter would just disappear" focused on this "tough week for us guilt-propelled mothers who failed to hook our children on the biggest kid cultural event of the 21st century. That is, the Harry Potter juggernaut."

"It doesn’t make you a bad parent," retired librarian Holly Eddy told Eagan before twisting the knife: "I do feel sorry for you and your kids. How wonderful is it that children and adults are eagerly anticipating the last Harry Potter. Isn't this better than some crummy movie, Nintendo game or cell phone?"

Eagan did find some other parental Potter holdouts, though, and concluded, "Reading Harry doesn't necessarily translate to reading anything else, many argue, partly because Harry's less about reading than about being part--tomorrow, simultaneously, coast-to-coast--of a brilliant but crass marketing scheme." 

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"Harry Potter and the Dementors of Guantánamo" was the headline for a piece by Leah Anthony Libresco in the Huffington Post. "I've grown up with Harry Potter," Libresco wrote. "The final book . . . comes out on my eighteenth birthday. As I've matured, the message of the series has become clear to me: the most important power is the courage to do what is right. We don't have to be wizards to save the world."

Libresco, a Presidential Scholar, met President Bush last month and was "one of 50 students to write and sign a letter asking the president to condemn torture and extraordinary renditions and to repudiate his signing statement to the McCain anti-torture bill. While I wouldn't say Harry Potter was my only role model in speaking truth to power, I did admire his decision to speak out against the excesses of power in his own government, the Ministry of Magic."

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Bloomberg reported that "William Hill Plc, a London-based bookmaker, closed bets on Harry sacrificing himself at 2/5 odds on July 17, cut from an original quote of 33/1 in early July. Lord Voldemort, who murdered Potter's parents, is at 9/4 to kill Harry, and Professor Severus Snape is at 4/1 odds to murder him. The bookmaker took more than 50,000 pounds ($100,000) in bets on Harry's fate, the first time in the company's history it had ever bet on a book."

Rupert Adams, a spokesman at William Hill, said, "Either someone has seen the final book or there's a rumor going around. It got to the stage when we couldn't go on anymore."

 

"It's going to be devastating--it really will be. It's kind of been a major part of my childhood."--Alleyne Ross, 15, of Christiansburg, Va., in the Roanoke Times.

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"One of the things I find interesting about the events is that there is all this excitement up until one minute past midnight. Literally thousands of people are waiting to receive their books. Within half an hour of the books being distributed to the fans, most of the events are empty. They've raced home to have a marathon reading session for the entire weekend."-- Jamie Broadhurst, v-p of marketing, Raincoast Books, in the Toronto Star.

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"The thing I love about these release parties is seeing the kids get their books, sit down on the floor and start reading. It brings tears to my eyes."-- Jen Longo of El Granada, Calif., in the Half Moon Bay Review.

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"The topics in the book are international topics, even though it's not a book written in Taiwan."--Huang Hui-ling, an official of a Taiwanese bookstore chain, in Reuters.

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"I'm grateful I didn't somehow dry up and fade out after maybe the fifth book. I'm thrilled I lasted for all because these will exist for the duration of our lives. The Harry Potter books are now all-time classics in the genre of A Christmas Carol, Alice in Wonderland, Around the World in Eighty Days." --Jim Dale, audiobook voice for the Harry Potter series, in the New York Post.

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During the same week that Borders announced the departure of two senior staff people, the company welcomed two new executives:

Effective next Monday, July 23, Teresa Wright joins Borders as v-p, merchandising, for the Paperchase U.S. division. Besides being responsible for the Paperchase sections in Borders stores in the U.S., she will be in charge of freestanding Paperchase stores, which the company will begin opening later this year. Formerly she was operating v-p, planning for women's ready to wear, at Macys and earlier held a variety of merchandising management positions at Wilsons Leather and Marshall Fields/Dayton Hudson.

Effective July 31, Myles Romero joins the company as v-p, strategic marketing and entertainment alliances. He was formerly director, Ford Global Branded Entertainment, for Ford Motor Company, where he managed Ford's sponsorship of American Idol and involvement with the James Bond movie Casino Royale. Entertainment alliances are a significant part of Borders's new strategic plans.

The moves come within days of the departure of Rick Vanzura, executive v-p, emerging business and technology, and chief strategy officer, who helpled develop Paperchase, and Bill Nasshan, senior v-p of trade books.

Yesterday Shelf Awareness's own Jennifer M. Brown appeared on CNN International, talking about Harry Potter. The segment will broadcast at times during the day today as well.

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Today on Hardball with Chris Matthews: Naomi Wolf, whose new book, The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot (Chelsea Green, $13.95, 9781933392790/1933392797), will appear in early September.

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Today Fresh Air remembers poet Sekou Sundiata, one of the fathers of the spoken word movement, who died this week at age 58. The tribute includes several interviews with him.

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On Sunday on the Early Show: Govind Armstrong, author of Small Bites, Big Nights: Seductive Little Plates for Intimate Occasions and Lavish Parties (Clarkson Potter, $30, 9780307337931/0307337936).

The most thrilling, gorgeous, complex and satisfying new graphic novel in years comes from Israel, written and illustrated by a woman whose storytelling skills and ability to capture emotional nuances in her characters are right up there at the top, on an equal with Marjane Satrapi and Alison Bechdel, the two reigning goddesses of graphic storytelling.

The story is a grabber and unfolds expertly. A woman serving her military duty tells our appealing hero, Koby, a young taxi-cab driver in Tel Aviv, that she has good reason to think his estranged father was blown up in a recent bombing. (Let me mention right now that the entire novel, hinged on terrorist activity, contains not a single anti-Palestinian comment. The lack of hatred and blame in Modan's world is part of the compassion that plays throughout the story.)

How she convinces Koby to help her find out what happened to his father, and what they discover, is Chinese boxes-within-boxes of secrets and lies. It's a superb mystery, full of false conclusions and theory-breakers wrecking each of your theories. The two central characters are both so likeable and complex--and constantly fighting--that they're straight out of classic comedy, except that they feel utterly real and you ache for their confusion, played out against the tortured backdrop of Tel Aviv, a city constantly taking the lives of its own citizens in explosive bloodbaths.

Modan works in big, bold colors, wisely knows what to show instead of tell and generates a sense of perpetual surprise, of rugs constantly being jerked out from under you. The volume is visually rich, handsomely produced, utterly unsentimental in tone, witty and heartbreaking and humane, with a jim-dandy ending.

Graphic novel doubters, here's the one that will break your resistance.--Nick DiMartino