By MARGIE MASON, Associated Press Writer
HANOI, Vietnam - Everybody's favorite boy wizard not only outwits evil Lord Voldemort and saves the day at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but also casts quite a spell in Vietnamese.
"Harry Potter (news - web sites) and the Order of the Phoenix," the fifth book in J.K. Rowling (news - web sites)'s seven-part series about the famous boy wizard, was released throughout Vietnam on Monday, making the communist country the first in the world to put out an authorized translation.
But young readers here who have anxiously awaited the Vietnamese version following last month's release of the English-language book will have to visit stores weekly if they want to find out how much trouble Harry gets himself into this time.
The much-anticipated book has been split up into a 15-part series to be released for about 30 cents each week, so that even poor children living in rural areas can afford to step onto Platform 9 3/4 and enter Harry Potter's magical world.
"I have read all the Harry books. I find it interesting because Harry has many characteristics of schoolboys like us," said Nguyen Vu Thang, 14, as he picked up his copy at the Thang Long bookstore. "All my friends are keen on Harry Potter."
The serial has been flying off the shelves in Hanoi, sales clerk Nguyen Van Vinh said. "We have sold about 100 books during my shift today. We did not have enough books to sell in the past."
The Tre (Youth) Publishing House signed a contract last week with Rowling's agent, Christopher Little Literary, for the copyright to translate the book in a country where counterfeit compact discs, DVDs and computer software are available for pennies on nearly every street corner.
The Vietnamese publisher began translating the book before actually signing a contract for the rights, said Neil Blair of the London-based agency. The two sides eventually reached an agreement to keep the book's launch date on schedule.
"We have to release the book quickly, because you cannot tell whether private individuals may release it without the copyright," said Quach Thu Nguyet, director of the Ho Chi Minh City publishing house.
Eager fans in Germany and China have already begun building unofficial translations of the latest book on the Internet because they're too impatient to wait for the hard copy to come out in their native language later this fall.
The books, a global phenomenon that have sold more than 190 million copies, have become a popular target of copyright offenders.
India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Iran are major offenders, but Blair said perhaps the worst example was China, where a fake book titled "Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-To-Dragon" was released last year bearing Rowling's name.
The Vietnamese publishing house has translated all of the Harry Potter books, and it plans to print 40,000 copies — compared to 30,000 of the other books — for the latest and longest installment in the series. Children's written books typically sell about 5,000 copies here, Nguyet said.
American-educated Vietnamese translator Ly Lan persuaded the publisher to take a chance on the boy wizard and translated the first four books in the series in 2001.
In Vietnam, publishing houses seldom translate foreign-authored fiction books since there is generally little public interest. Getting approval through Vietnam's conservative censors is also difficult.
But here, as elsewhere in the world, Harry Potter's charm won over the public.
"I think the young people here, they're always eager to know about the world," Lan said. "They want to read the same books, sing the same songs and wear the same clothes, but not many of them can read English or have the English book available."
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