Post ASVhY4oA8a7HHehTma by shacker@zirk.us
 (DIR) More posts by shacker@zirk.us
 (DIR) Post #ASVhY2cOHNVmUZB39k by SarahKite@mastodon.social
       2023-02-08T21:56:23Z
       
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       Back in 1997 I was working at the long defunct independent bookstore Catalyst Books in Portland, Oregon. That was when I first got an inkling of the Harry Potter frenzy that would soon arrive in the US to dominate the bookselling landscape for years to come.It started with a regular who had returned from a trip to London & soon, every few weeks we would get another adamant customer asking for “the Harry Potter kids book”.1/
       
 (DIR) Post #ASVhY3AmDX18DDGVkm by SarahKite@mastodon.social
       2023-02-08T22:01:54Z
       
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       I would dutifully look on the Ingram microfiche, in Books In Print, in Forthcoming Books, even do a slow dial-up internet search by keywords but I could find no record of the book that they insisted existed. This was back in the day when there was no World Wide Web as we know it, and here in the US we had no access to UK publishing sources.All these customers were flummoxed, even rude. They took me to be a useless, empty-headed clerk2/
       
 (DIR) Post #ASVhY3hkExO9rSgq8m by SarahKite@mastodon.social
       2023-02-08T22:06:43Z
       
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       These harried customers took particular offense when the only book title I could come up with was a children’s picture book entitled Harvey Potter’s Balloon Farm, published in 1994. It was a title we stocked. I would walk to the shelf & pull the book, hoping that surely THIS title was what they meant. And they would reply NO NO NO. You could practically FEEL them thinking “Jane, you ignorant slut.”There wasn’t anything else I could do3/
       
 (DIR) Post #ASVhY4Gq8TSfcJ6rqK by SarahKite@mastodon.social
       2023-02-08T22:15:02Z
       
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       But I assure you, let it be known throughout the land, that Harvey Potter’s Balloon Farm is a delightful picture book. Written by Jerdine Nolan and illustrated by Mark Buehner, I am sure that its title got confused & buried in years to follow.So in appreciation, here are just two of the gorgeous illustrations. You can easily find many more online.4/4
       
 (DIR) Post #ASVhY4oA8a7HHehTma by shacker@zirk.us
       2023-02-09T17:45:34Z
       
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       @SarahKite I’ll never again hear the words “Harry Potter” without instantly imagining a balloon farm.
       
 (DIR) Post #ASVixe97zJhg4pGNhA by SarahKite@mastodon.social
       2023-02-09T18:01:24Z
       
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       @shacker haha, then my work here is done 🫡