When Son was in second grade, a friend of his who had a friend in London heard about a book called, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone."

While J.K. Rowling’s magical epic was already gathering a readership in England, the book was unavailable in the United States until the Spring of 1999 (I may have my dates wrong).

Our friends discovered that you could purchase the book on the English Amazon.com. Barely anyone in Brooklyn had even heard of the book.

Our friends kept talking about the interesting book they were reading to their sons at bedtime. We waited until the American edition came out and I read it to my son at bedtime.

I noticed right away that the book was well-written and noticibly more complex in terms of form. It really felt like a work of literary fiction for adults but with a subject that was continually interesting to children.

I also noticed that the the chapters were long — and it was time-consuming to finish one before bedtime. But we read the book quickly – one chapter a night.

My son became obsessed with the book and when his birthday rolled around in June he wanted a Harry Potter party. Mind you, this was before there was Harry Potter merchandise, party plates, games, etc. This was years before the first movie. In fact, nobody in my son’s second grade class had read Harry Potter or even heard of it in June of 1999.

We sent out invitations to his friends and classmates. It read like the letter Harry gets from Hogwarts, the Wizard’s school, inviting him to attend the school.

Many of the parents were intrigued by the invite and thought we were massively creative. The truth was, we’d copied it out of the book — just changing a few names and dates.

The party itself was planned to a T. My sister bought supplies for a wand-making activity. We created our own Sorting Hat, the hat used at Hogwarts to determine which special society (Gryffindor, Slitherin, etc.) a student belongs in. There was "Pin the Letter on Hedwig," a huge painting of a beautiful owl like the one in the book who delivers mail to Harry. On my son’s loft bed we created a simulation of a Quidditch game. At the conclusion of the party, my husband read the first chapter of the book.

Needless to say, the party was a roaring sucess and my son was pleased as punch. The parents were happy not to have to drop their kids off at Kids ‘n Action or a bowling alley and were excited by what sounded like a teriffic book.

By spring of the next year, Harry Potter was a world-wide phenomenon. Scholastic released the second book (or was it the third?) at midnight on a Friday night that year, a huge event for kids who showed up at bookstores dressed as characters in the book or in pajamas as Son did. J.K Rowling was on her way to becoming the richest woman in England.

Soon there was a Harry Potter movie and Hollywood images of all the characters and places that had previously been conjured in the imagination of those lucky children who were the first to read the book before it became the iconic bestseller it is now.

Now Son is so "been there, done that" about the opening of the new movie. Daughter, on the other hand, went with Husband the very first night. Son  "hated" the third movie because it left so much out, not surprisingly since the book was 500 pages long.  At 14 his movie tastes have evolved a bit: "Jarhead," "Harold and Maude,"  and "Garden State" are favorites.

He and his friends intentionally avoided the hoopla of opening night at the Pavillion, attending instead a production of Galileo by Brecht at Berkeley Carroll that his best friend was in. Just so you don’t think I’m showing off in that "my child is more interesting than your child" way, I’m not. Son found the Brecht play to be quite boring (though he said his friend was EXCELLENT).

My guess is that Son and his friends will catch the movie on the sly this weekend or next. While they’re doing a good job of pretending that they don’t care a bit about the new Harry Potter, underneath it all, I suspect, they’re dying to see Harry, Hermoine, and Ron in the latest installment of that wizardly tale.

UPDATE: Son and friends tried to see the 7 p.m. show on Saturday but it was sold out. He made fun of me this morning for posting, as he put it, this "aren’t we cool for knowing about Harry Potter before you did" post.