WILD ABOUT READING 'HARRY' 'POTTER' CRAZE SPREADS IN CLASSROOMS.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

A couple of days before they would kick off their summer vacation, about 50 students in the library at Tarzana's Portola Middle School had one thing on their minds: Sticking their noses in books.

Not just any books, of course. The focus was ``Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,'' J.K. Rowling's long-awaited fifth novel about the celebrated boy wizard, which many of these excited young readers had reserved for purchase well before its release tonight at 12.

There's no quiet zone in the library as the students gather to talk about the new book.

``Since it's called 'The Order of the Phoenix,' and since Harry's wand has a phoenix feather in it and so does Voldemort's, there's going to be something to cause Harry to want to be evil and he's going to fight against that,'' suggested 14-year-old eighth-grader Kimmie Solomon.

With the books attracting worldwide attention, Portola students would have heard about Harry anyway, of course, but their enthusiasm for the book series has been fueled in part by Cheryl Spivak, an English teacher who added ``Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' to her elective literature class for sixth-graders three years ago.

``Everyone was reading it, and kids were coming into my room and borrowing my copy,'' she said. ``I'd be walking around campus reading it and these kids would come up to me with their mouths full of braces, kids who didn't know me, and start talking to me about it.

``And every time a kid got punished or disciplined, they were sitting in a dean's office and reading.''

The elective class - which includes read-arounds and quizzes - led to a Harry Potter trivia contest two years ago, which she will repeat next fall. She already has some 400 questions she culled from the books, such as ``Whose wand is made out of yew wood?'' or ``How long does a phoenix live?'' Spivak said with $50 prizes put up by the Parent Teacher Association, not to mention a certain pride in Potter proficiency, the contestants go for blood.

At the school library gathering, the students speculated about what ``The Order of the Phoenix'' would bring for Harry, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, gentle giant Hagrid and malevolent Lord Voldemort was a game in itself.

Will there be romance?

``You can totally tell Ron and Hermione are going to get together,'' offered eighth-grader Rachel Hassid, 13, with great confidence.

Peril? ``Hermione gets kidnapped!'' suggested 12-year-old sixth-grader Alex Rozovsky.

``Voldemort is going to want to attack Harry, but Dumbledore is going to get in the middle and get hit with the spell,'' offered sixth-grader Omar Benitez, 12. ``The Phoenix will try to heal him but can't.''

Sixth-grader Rylan Tepper, 11, would like an answer to a longtime mystery: ``Harry will finally know why Voldemort is trying to kill him.''

Christian Gonzalez, a 13-year-old eighth-grader, said, ``Sirius (Black, Harry's godfather) is going to come back and get to adopt Harry Potter.''

But 12-year-old Nilab Nawabi, a seventh-grader, said the uncertainties in the fourth novel, ``Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,'' taught her not to hold out for a happy ending from Rowling.

``You have to predict the unpredictable,'' she said.

``I don't know why, but I really want a transfer student from America to go (to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry),'' said eighth-grader Leslie Ann Klein, 13, sounding as if she were ready to volunteer for that assignment.

Spivak said that sounded like a great idea to her. ``I want to teach there,'' she said. ``I want to teach spells and potions.''

The books also have caught on with teachers at Tarzana's Woodcrest School, who have been reading them aloud to third-, fourth- and fifth- graders.

Gina Giordano, a 10-year-old fourth-grader, guessed that ``Phoenix'' may have some wizards fearing that Harry is related to Voldemort, noting that they have some unusual powers in common, including the ability to converse with snakes.

Classmate Brandon Gale, 10, promptly flipped to the right page in a library copy of ``The Chamber of Secrets'' to offer the authoritative spelling of ``parseltongue.''

Spivak called ``The Sorcerer's Stone'' ``a great 'character counts' book.''

``The book stands for goodness and loyalty and friends and doing the right thing even when it's hard and respect for adults,'' she said, graciously crediting the young hero with giving this year's Portola graduates ``lessons in civility and lessons in morals.''

``We're so delighted that 'Order of the Phoenix' is coming out because the excitement overlaps everything else in the library and kids just read,'' she said. ``You read one book, you start reading them all.''

Valerie Kuklenski, [phone]

valerie.kuklenski(at)dailynews.com

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From left, Jordan Kedem, Omar Benitez, Kunal Kapoor and David Reyes flip through their favorite ``Harry Potter'' books Thursday. The long-awaited fifth book lands in bookstores tonight at midnight.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer