SOURCE: “A World of Wizards,” in New Leader, Vol. 82, No. 13, November 1–15, 1999, pp. 13–14.

In the following review, Allen comments on Rowling's unprecedented popularity.

A phenomenon is afoot in the publishing world. As I write, the top three slots on the New York Times best-seller list are not occupied by Frank McCourt or Roddy Doyle, nor even by crowd-pleasers like Danielle Steel or Tom Clancy. They are held by a charming and unpretentious children's series about a young wizard named Harry Potter, the creation of J. (for Joanne) K. Rowling, a single mother living in Edinburgh. Entirely unknown until the publication of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in Britain two years ago, Rowling has now put out the third novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Her triumph is the more remarkable for having been achieved without benefit of marketing blitzes, toy tie-ins or movie...