7/26/07
Manning girl is first to get ‘Deathly Hallows’ at Sumter event
By Cathy Gilbert

CATHY GILBERT/Manning Times

With hundreds of eager readers waiting behind her, Laine Blank, a rising freshman a Manning High, was the first to receive a copy of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ at a Sumter Mall book launch event Friday night.

It’s been the object of great desire for months now.

Harry Potter fans have waited and waited.

Bookstores, like Waldenbooks in Sumter, have kept their stash of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows under lock and key. To have peeked early could mean the loss of the bookselling privilege. No one with any smarts in the book business would ever breach an embargo.

There may be honor among thieves, but there is more honor among booksellers.

The crowd that gathered in the Sumter Mall Friday night was eclectic at best.

There were little seven-year-old Harry’s and grown ups in witch’s costumes, pasty-faced as ghosts and ghouls and wizards floated about the filled mall.

But standing near the entrance to Waldenbooks was one very demure young woman with a smile that would rival the Mona Lisa’s. She had a secret and she was pleased as punch about it.
Manning’s Laine Blank, a promising ninth-grader at Manning High School was first in line. She would get her hands on the much-anticipated Deathly Hallows before any one else.

The envy among the crowd, numbering well over 500, was palpable.

Blank admitted she was overwhelmed by the size and the, uh, weirdness of the crowd.

A first timer at a Potter book launching party, Blank said, “This certainly isn’t Manning!”

Decked out in a Hogwart’s (Harry’s school of wizardry) uniform of knee length black skirt, button-down white shirt and a very preppy tie, Blank looked perfect for the part she was about to play.
Blank said she loves the books and has read all of them.

“I started reading them when I was eight or nine,” she said. “I can relate to Harry so much. He leads a normal life (well, except for the magic) and faces the same rises and falls we all do.”

Blank, who aspires to be a pediatrician some day, saw the movie from the fifth book last weekend, clearing her decks for reading the hefty tome.

“It will take me about two days,” Blank said. “I’ll start tonight and finish by Sunday for sure.”

Blank was at the Sumter Mall for a book launching party thrown by the Mall, Chik-Fil-A and Waldenbooks. Mall official Derek Rheams kept the crowd of about 500 enthralled with Harry Potter spelling bees and trivia quizzes. All was very upbeat and orderly, albeit very excited.

When the midnight hour finally arrived, Blank’s grin could have been seen across the large mall. Book buyers, with their orange wrist bands identifying them as having a reserved copy in their names, filed in behind Blank to the back of the store where she received her prized copy.

It was all over in a matter of minutes for Blank who was obviously ready to settle down for a good read.