By LES HIGH
Editor

With all the junk that’s available on television and the Internet, it’s been heartening to see the excitement generated this summer by the new (and last) Harry Potter book and Disney’s long-awaited sequel to “High School Musical.”
We were among the thousands of families that waited in a long line at midnight to buy “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” in July.

All during the day of the release, book stores in Wilmington hosted events, such as costume contests, to generate excitement among Harry Potter fans, not that enthusiasm wasn’t at a fever pitch already. Even at 3 in the afternoon, Harry Potter and Snape look-a likes filled the aisles of the Barnes & Nobles bookstore at Mayfaire.

The whole Harry Potter frenzy was a phenomenon unlike any of this generation. In a time when books and reading were thought to be dead at the hands of Nintendo and MTV, along came a series of books that ignited the imaginations and a zest for reading of millions of young people across the world.

So here we were on a Saturday afternoon, in a Barnes and Nobles that normally would be filled with older bookish types sipping their specialty coffees. But instead, young people had taken over the store to be among their Harry Potter brethren.

This is not normal for teen-agers, and for a few fleeting hours on that Saturday, it was cool to be nerd, a bookworm, a lover of literature, to dress up like your favorite character of a book.

Yes, we waited in the line that stretched outside and even behind the building at midnight, but we got our precious book, which my younger child devoured well into the subsequent nights until she had finished.
Reading has never been so much fun.

Thank you, J.K. Rowling.

Tomorrow night marks the premier of “High School Musical 2.” I’ve known the exact date and time of the premiere for months because I’ve been asked, “How long before it’s August 17?” all summer long.

“High School Musical” was another anomaly. Disney rediscovered that the warm and fuzzy musicals that made it the family institution it once was are indeed popular even in 2007. For those of you who don’t know, “High School Musical” was a made-for-TV movie that is a modern-day Romeo and Juliet revolving around two teens, one a basketball star and one a science geek, who fall in love. As one might imagine, other girls have eyes for the basketball star, teen idol Zac Efron, and the angst ensues. There is a happy ending.

The sound track was the best-selling CD of 2006.

The Whiteville High School drama club performed “High School Musical” at its spring production to sold-out shows, and the club’s drama camp for younger children centered around the movie as well.

Both our girls attended the camp. The week before, Jennifer Marlowe, the high school’s drama teacher and camp instructor, sent a letter to parents asking that they make sure their children listened to a few of the songs before attending the camp so they’d be ready.

That caused quite a chuckle in our house.

Of course (and I’m sure Jennifer already knew this), not only had all of the children “listened” to a few of the songs, they had completely memorized them.

So if your neighborhood is strangely quiet tomorrow night from 8 to 10 except for the shrieks of joy when Zac Efron makes his first appearance, don’t say you weren’t warned here first.

The big question in “High School Musical 2” is whether Troy will actually kiss Gabriella.
Now how wonderfully quaint is that?

Thank you, Disney.

Moving on to another literary topic, some of our readers have responded to an ad we have placed in our last two editions calling for writers.

What we’d like to do is develop a pool of local writers who would utilize their talents to write columns or feature stories about people, or perhaps cover a weekend news event when our full-time staff members are busy.

It’s something to do more for fun than money.

A case in point is Ann Worthington, who has been writing the popular “Ramblin’ with Ann” column for several years. Ann thoroughly enjoys the opportunity to take a walk down memory lane, and she says she often gets stopped in places like the grocery store by people who enjoy sharing similar experiences with her.

We’ll run the ad for a couple of more weeks, then probably have a quick meeting to see where people’s interests lie. Young and old, opinionated and apolitical alike are invited to participate.

From that list, we’ll send you off to do stories or submit columns for the op-ed page. We want more voices to be heard, so don’t be bashful. You can contact me by phone at 642-4104, extension 223, or by email at leshigh@newsreporter.biz.