Alex, 8, makes tiredness vanish

By SCOTT MacLEOD and ALAN PERROTT

The dark rings beneath Alexander Marquart's eyes underlined his status as the country's biggest Harry Potter fan.

After the best part of 28 hours and 25 minutes, the 8-year-old and his mum Kate were the only fans to sit through almost the entire marathon reading of the latest Potter adventure at the Aotea Centre in Auckland.

The reading, which had begun the second anyone could their hands on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, finally ended with tired organisers claiming a world record for completing a Potter book so quickly.

Alexander, in his wizard's cape, tie and Harry Potter-style glasses - and only dropping his wand when he needed chocolate or barley sugar - was already looking forward to reading the book himself when the marathon finally ended at 3.26pm yesterday.

He had a brief sleep when they went home to watch the All Blacks-Wales test, before returning with a friend at 11.30pm to make up an eager audience of three until a few others drifted in about 7.30am.

"Mum is knackered," said Alexander's sister, Kim. "I'm absolutely shattered."

But there was no convincing Alexander to take another rest. As a fan who regularly watches both movies in single sittings, there was only one place he wanted to be.

His eyes finally closed as children's author Margaret Mahy began the final page, only to be persuaded open again by mum as the last line was chorused by several readers.

Alexander was too tired to speak, but climbed onto the small reading platform to accept a gift for his effort.

At precisely 11.01am on Saturday, Mahy had turned the first leaf and started reading to 100 or so fans as part of a bid to set a record for the longest reading aloud of a children's book.

The many celebrity guests read their way though the book's 766 pages and 255,000 words, as part of the Storylines Festival for children's books at Aotea Centre.

Others taking part included children's TV personality Suzy Cato, former Governor-General Dame Cath Tizard, actors Michael Hurst and Jennifer Ward-Lealand, newsreaders Simon Dallow and Alison Mau, and rugby union and league player Mark Robinson.

For adult listeners, there was some amusement in watching Prime Minister Helen Clark impose order with an authoritarian "Can I have people a little bit quieter, please?" and "Dudley, keep your mouth shut - whatever you do, keep your mouth shut. Dudley wouldn't want to lose face in front of the gang".

Cato commanded the attention of most of the toddlers and all their fathers as she read a section about kissing.

There was no doubting the loyalty of Potter fans. Daniel Jackson, 9, had already read 85 pages by midday.

"Harry's really brave and he knows how to get out of a situation without fighting," Daniel said. "He's got out of 20 situations that no one normal could."

Noeline Coppell, a great-grandmother, said she had read all the Potter books and thought they were wonderful.

She was clearly not alone - even before yesterday's launch, an estimated 200 million Potter books had been sold.

The new book is expected to break all sales records and is drawing strong reviews.

Aucklander Josh Tucker, 7, said the Potter books were "really cool" because they had magic in them. He concluded yesterday that the new book was "sort of as good as the others".