LONDON -- Literary agent Christopher Little recalled the moment four years ago when he plunged into Harry Potter's world.

On his way to lunch, Little picked up an unsolicited manuscript that was buried in a pile, read one page, and then another, and couldn't stop, as he was transported to a fantasy world filled with wizards, broomsticks and wonder. When he arrived at the restaurant, he was so distracted that a colleague asked him what was on his mind.

The agent talked about the manuscript and finally said, "This is a big one."

And the rest is now publishing history.

The tale of the orphaned child wizard, Harry Potter, and the British author, J. K. Rowling, is perhaps the literary phenomenon of the 1990s.

Rare is the children's book that sells a few thousand copies, let alone millions.

But the Harry Potter series is a worldwide best seller, and his creator, Joanne Rowling, has reaped financial riches, in stark contrast to her days as a struggling author and divorced mother on welfare who typed two copies of her first manuscript to send to publishers and agents.

The first two books in the series, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," are American best sellers.

But over here, kids and their parents are flocking to bookstores for "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," the third installment of the projected seven-part series that is due to take the character through the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a fanciful, high-flying boarding school.

The new book will be launched next month in the United States by its American publisher, Scholastic Press. But the Bloomsbury Publishing British edition is already a U.S. best seller via the Internet.

Coming to Baltimore

And Rowling's autumn American book tour is eagerly awaited, with a Baltimore appearance scheduled in mid-October.

In an age of video games and cable television, those who have shepherded the series from its infancy are taken aback by its world-wide success. The conventional wisdom that children, especially boys, don't read for pleasure has been turned on its head by Harry Potter.

Boys aged 9 to 12 can't seem to get enough of their favorite character. The same with girls. Even adults are reading the books.

Now, there are Harry Potter books in 25 languages. And Warner Bros. has scooped up options on the first two books, with the series likely to hit the big screen early next century.

"Kids are finding it exciting for their own imaginations to be released," Little said.

At heart, Harry Potter is just an old-fashioned British boarding school yarn, with kids making their way through the world. Good and evil, life and death, and just growing up, are among the challenges and subjects dealt with. And there is darkness, too, since Harry's parents were murdered by the dark prince Voldemort.

There's plenty of fun and excitement, also, as Harry rides his Nimbus 2000 broomstick to play the aerial sport called Quidditch, and goes on adventures with his best friends, Ron and Hermione.

Colum Fraser, a 9-year-old from Scotland, best sums up the lure of the books, when he says, "They're exciting, they're funny, they're action-packed and sometimes a little bit scary."

Colum's aunt, Lindsey, couldn't agree more. As head of Scottish Book Trust, a group that promotes readership, Lindsey Fraser is on the front lines of encouraging children to read for pleasure.

She read the first Harry Potter book in manuscript form, and couldn't get enough of the story.

"It's quite sophisticated," Fraser said. "There is something about it that moves the children forward. They'll read it at age 7, come back at age 9. Although it is fantasy and completely wacky, the central point is the friendship of the three main characters, Harry, Ron and Hermione. Children instantly recognize that friends fall out and fall in. And from that, this fantastic world can be created."

An author's tale

Rowling's tale to fame and fortune is perhaps equally improbable. She got the idea for Harry Potter while riding on a Manchester to London train in 1990. But it would take her a few years to turn her idea into a best seller. In the meantime, she went to Portugal to teach English, got married, and then divorced, and wound up in Edinburgh, living on public assistance in a dingy apartment and caring for her infant daughter.

With half a suitcase full of Harry Potter stories she wrote while in Portugal, Rowling set about completing her work, rocking her child to sleep and fashioning her manuscript over cups of coffee in an Edinburgh cafe.

In a July 1998 interview with the Telegraph of London, Rowling detailed the secret of her literary success: never underestimate children.

"It annoys me that people think you have to 'dumb down' to children," she said.

Among her favorite authors are Jane Austen and Roddy Doyle. And Rowling said she retained a vivid memory of her mother and father reading aloud "Wind In the Willows."

Yet modern best sellers are made of more than good storytelling and literary influences.

Growth market

To understand the kind of fame Rowling now has, consider this: It took only 4 1/2 hours to sell all 800 tickets for readings Rowling will give at this year's Edinburgh book festival. Back in 1997, her book festival appearance drew just 12 children, and most of those were her friends' kids.

The work and author were cleverly marketed in Britain. Rowling's personal story, and news of a big American advance, received ample coverage in British newspapers, a boon to selling a first book. Then, top children's literary awards rolled in.

The release of the third book was carefully timed, with the first copies going on sale 15 minutes after the close of the school day. And once again, the publication of a children's book became a legitimate news story, as kids swamped the shops.

At the Children's Book Center in London, 300 copies of "Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban" were sold within 48 hours. Liz Gee, the store owner, wasn't surprised.

"There aren't many good adventure books on the market," she said. "It's old-fashioned and it works."

What's in the future for Harry Potter?

Rowling has already mapped out the series, with the stories apparently growing progressively darker. And hormones are bound to rage.

After all, Harry Potter is growing up.

Harry Potter books in demand here

No surprise here: The Harry Potter books are big sellers at bookstores in the Baltimore area, just as they are throughout the country.

"I don't think I remember a book being in such demand -- a children's book," said Linda Caplan, a book associate in the children's department at Bibelot in Pikesville. "We have people in here about every day asking for one of the books," Caplan said. In the last four weeks, Waldenkids in Glen Burnie has sold 19 copies of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and 24 copies of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," according to Sheila Kuykendall, a part-time bookseller at the store.

"We've had a hard time for the last couple of weeks keeping them in" stock, Kuykendall said.

Tonya Miller, a bookseller at Borders Books & Music in Towson, said the store sold about 10 Harry Potter books in the last week. During July, the store sold 37 copies of "Sorcerer" and 34 copies of "Chamber."

"They sell very well. Extremely well," said Miller. "We constantly have them on order. We con- stantly have them in transit. We have 108 paperbacks on order."

-- Lori Sears