Harry PotterSummer 2009 Pub Date for ‘Hallows’ Paperback

While British readers have been able to pick up the paperback edition of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows since July, fans in this country will have to wait a bit longer. Scholastic has announced that the U.S. paperback will arrive on July 7, 2009, just a few weeks ahead of the big-screen debut of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which was pushed back to July 17 from a planned release this November. 

The U.S. paperback will pub two years after the 2007 hardcover publication of Deathly Hallows, and almost exactly one year after the British paperback release. That edition sold more than 46,000 copies in its first few days on the market, with British supermarket chain Asda nabbing 79% of the initial sales, following a limited-time £1 “Magic Price” promotion, according to the Bookseller. (Asda’s deep discounting drew complaints from booksellers, and the Guardian’s Book Blog contemplated whether this had diminished the Potter brand.)