The wait will soon be over as kids and bookstores across Bermuda await the arrival of the fourth instalment of the Harry Potter series -- which is expected to arrive sometime next week.

To date, only Front Street bookseller Buds, Beans and Books has been able to stock the 700-page `Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire', but by yesterday had already sold out.

And, if Buds, Beans and Book's growing waiting list is any indication, the latest adventures of the wildly popular boy-wizard looks to be as big a hit in Bermuda as it has been worldwide.

Released on June 8 to much media fanfare in the US and UK, the J.K. Rowling series has since become a publishing phenomenon, holding the attention and imaginations of young readers worldwide.

The first three instalments of the series have already sold over 35 million copies and a Harry Potter movie is expected to hit movie theatres sometime in 2002.