SUNSHINE & MAGIC

Will Lord Voldemort finally get what's coming to him?

Will Ron and Hermione live through the last pages?

Will Harry Potter survive another big battle with his nemesis?

Those questions, and more, are on the minds of many kids, and adults, this summer as they eagerly await the final installment of J.K. Rowling's wildly popular series featuring young wizard Harry Potter.

Scholastic Books has printed 12 million copies of the seventh book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows," the long-awaited surefire bestseller that comes out July 21. It will hit most store shelves at one minute after midnight.

Rowling's books not only have been runaway hits, but they've lured in the toughest readership on the planet -- young boys.

Such as Lewie Panozzo, a 10-year-old student at Roger M. Bryan Elementary School. Lewie calls himself "a big fan" who has been into "Harry Potter" since the first movie came out. He became interested in the books because of the magic angle -- his grandfather, Jack Heart, was a magician who showed Lewie "some old-fashioned" tricks.

It's also Rowling's ability to keep him glued to the pages that grabbed Lewie. "I can be reading them and not know where I am," he says.

Besides owning almost all of the books, Lewie has Potter memorabilia: a beanbag, backpack, wand, mask and videos.

And like most fans of the books, Lewie is speculating on who will die at the end of the new book; he's banking on Voldemort.

The books' appeal has gone beyond youngsters. Adults are hooked too. Including Mika Gray, who works in the city's only children's bookstore, The NeverEnding Story Children's Bookshoppe at 9440 W. Sahara Ave.

Gray, a 40-year-old Potter fan whose car bears the "NO MUGGLES" license plate, has been hooked on Harry since the first book came out. "When I moved to Vegas last year, I had to have a room for my books, and I put my Harry Potter things on one shelf," including her Harry Potter Coca-Cola bottle and a host of other collectibles. "I'm a hard-core devotee."

She will be on hand when the store presents its "Magical Harry Potter Party" starting at 10 p.m. July 20. Kids are invited to wear their "Harry Potter" character costumes at the event that will include "Harry Potter" trivia, a performance by a magician, a "Harry Potter" movie viewing area and themed snacks.

The store is offering 20 percent off pre-sales of the book. So far, says Gray, there have been nearly 50 pre-sale orders.

"This is going to be huge for us," she says.

And for other booksellers as well, such as Borders Bookshop, 2323 S. Decatur Blvd., which will host a midnight party starting at 9 p.m. July 20. Activities, raffles, prizes, a costume contest, face painting, and arts and crafts are planned.

Also, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 8915 W. Charleston Blvd., plans a midnight release party called "Midnight Magic" that will offer games, activities and a costume contest.

Other top books either in stores or coming out in the next few months include:

• Elmore Leonard's "Up in Honey's Room" (William Morrow) contains the top crime novelist's usual array of wacky characters in a story set in 1940s Detroit: Walter, who thinks he could be Heinrich Himmler's twin brother; Jurgen, a genial German who has escaped from a POW camp in Oklahoma; Carl Webster, an Oklahoma lawman from Leonard's previous novel, "The Hot Kid," who is determined to bring in Jurgen and Otto, another escapee; the title character, Honey Deal, who previously was married to Walter but is trying to heat up Webster; and various German spies who are more concerned about riding out the end of the war than doing any real spying. (In stores)

• James Lee Burke brings all of his skills to bear in "The Tin Roof Blowdown" (Simon & Schuster), in which Iberia Parish Sheriff's Detective Dave Robicheaux is sent to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to find two serial rapists, a drug-addicted priest and a vigilante. The book is being touted as Burke's best novel, and that's saying something. (July 17)

• Prix Goncourt winner and France's top novelist, Jean Echenoz, follows the last 10 years of composer Maurice Ravel's life in "Ravel" (The New Press). Translated by Linda Coverdale, the book begins with Ravel's trip to America in 1927 and ends with his tragic death from Alzheimer's. (In stores)

• "Lean Mean Thirteen" (St. Martin's Press) is the 13th in the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. The New Jersey bounty hunter becomes a suspect when her ex-husband Dickie is missing. (June 19)

• Perhaps best known as a writer and producer on David Lynch's TV series "Twin Peaks," Mark Frost also has considerable chops as a novelist ("The List of Seven"). Frost is back in bookstores with "The Second Objective" (Hyperion), set during World War II's Battle of the Bulge. A 2,000-member brigade of Germans disguised as American troops makes a final effort to whip the Allies. (In stores)

• "The Sleeping Doll" (Simon & Schuster) is one of Jeffery Deaver's best as he follows interrogator and kinesics expert Kathryn Dance as she attempts to track down convicted killer Daniel Pell, who styles himself as "the Son of Manson." The author of the Lincoln Rhyme series appears to have another potential hit series on his hands. (In stores)

• American spy novelist Daniel Silva's art restorer and spy Gabriel Allon returns in "The Secret Servant" (Putnam). Allon finds himself stuck in the middle of a conspiracy of Islamic terrorists in Amsterdam who are plotting to kidnap the daughter of the American ambassador to England. (July 24)

• "Bones to Ashes" (Scribner) by Kathy Reichs, creator and producer of Fox TV's "Bones," features forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan as she investigates the skeleton of a 14-year-old girl, who may be the victim of a serial killer. (Aug. 28)

• Up-and-coming British novelist Mark Billingham tells the story of a missing teenager in "Buried" (HarperCollins). Luke Mullen was last seen getting into a car with a woman. Has he been abducted, or did he go voluntarily? That's what police detective inspector Tom Thorne wants to know. (Aug. 1)

• The amazingly prolific Nora Roberts hits stores with "High Noon" (Putnam), which centers around police lieutenant Phoebe MacNamara, a hostage negotiator in Savannah, Ga., whose family was trapped and terrorized by a strange man when she was a child. Once again, MacNamara is assaulted and tormented by an unknown man. (July 10)

• "The Wheel of Darkness" (Warner Books) by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child features police officer Aloysius Pendergast as he and his adopted daughter Constance take off for a remote monastery in Tibet where a rare and dangerous artifact has been stolen. (Aug. 28)

• From Khaled Hosseini, the Afghan-American who hit it big with "The Kite Runner," comes his latest, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" (Riverhead). It's the story of today's Afghanistan as seen through the lives of two women, Mariam and Laila, both wives of the brutal Rasheed. (In stores)

• Russian police investigator Arkady Renko returns in Martin Cruz Smith's "Stalin's Ghost" (Simon & Schuster). Renko has been assigned to investigate subway passengers who claim to have seen the ghost of Josef Stalin on a Moscow train station platform. (June 12)

• Cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson takes a look at "Spook Country" (Putnam). The story intertwines the lives of an information transfer specialist, an investigative journalist, a junkie and a troubleshooter for manufacturers of military navigation equipment. (Aug. 7)

• Pete Hamill goes back to New York City in 1934 in "North River" (Little, Brown & Co.). It's the middle of the Depression and Dr. James Delaney not only takes care of the sick and the poor in his neighborhood, but now his 3-year-old grandson has been dumped on his doorstep. (June 11)

• In "The Maytrees" (HarperCollins), Annie Dillard ("Pilgrim at Tinker Creek") tells of the marriage of Lou Bigelow and Toby Maytree in World War II Provincetown. Later, Toby takes off to Maine with another woman, Deary Hightoe, but returns to Lou 20 years later with Deary, who is ill, in tow. (June 12)

• "Blaze" (Scribner) by Richard Bachman, with a forward by Stephen King, is being billed as the posthumous work of Bachman, who as fans of King know is one of his pseudonyms. King killed off Bachman years ago, but he's back from the dead with the story of Clayton Blaisdell Jr., an all-around bad guy who kidnaps a baby heir worth millions. (June 12)

• "The Good Guy" (Bantam) by Dean Koontz starts off with a familiar premise: There's this guy in a bar who's minding his own business when another guy sits down next to him and, assuming he's the hit man he's there to meet, gives him $10,000 to kill a female writer in Laguna Beach. Shortly after, the real hit man shows up and the "good guy" pretends to be the client. He puts off the hit by saying he's changed his mind and hands the hit man the cash. The good guy then tries to help the woman avoid being killed. (In stores)

• She's a mother, she's a wife, and now she's a Hollywood screenwriter. And that's when the trouble begins for Tanya Harris in Danielle Steel's "Bungalow 2" (Delacorte Press). First, her marriage goes south, then she searches for her soul mate, one man at a time. (June 26)

• Ann Rule, the queen of true crime books, tells the tale of the tall and handsome dentist who did more than drill a few teeth in "Too Late to Say Goodbye: A True Story of Murder and Betrayal" (Free Press).