Growing up with the Harry Potter books in the United States meant growing up with the beautiful cover art of
Mary GrandPre, who created the distinctive imagery of the American editions.
I honestly love these covers. I think they do an amazing job of illustrating both the narrative and the atmosphere of each volume.
Sorcerer's Stone is bright, whimsical;
Goblet of Fire is subdued, a little more adult;
Order of the Phoenix is dark, sinister;
Deathly Hallows is perhaps the most simple of all, yet dramatic and sincere.
I can't help but feel partial to GrandPre's Harry Potter covers, but I've enjoyed digging up cover art for the many, many international editions. I think it's fascinating to see the artwork that other young Potter fans grew up with, and know that they are probably as fiercely loyal to their own book covers as I am to mine (except for the poor, poor children of Iceland).
(In most cases I didn't include artwork for all seven volumes in the series, but I tried to select covers that convey each publisher's overall style.)
See images after the jump.
U.K.
I know some might consider the British covers the
originals, but I find them kind of boring (
Half-Blood Prince is the best, I think, so I made sure to include it).
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| Book 6 (English — U.K.) |
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| Book 7 (English — U.K.) |
Czech Republic
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Book 1 (Czech)
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Denmark
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| Book 5 (Danish) |
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| Book 7 (Danish) |
Finland
Why the noses?
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| Book 1 (Finnish) |
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| Book 2 (Finnish) |
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| Book 6 (Finnish) |
France
I really liked the French covers (especially Book 7). Very different than many of the others.
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| Book 3 (French) |
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| Book 6 (French) |
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| Book 7 (French) |
Germany
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| Book 1 (German) |
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| Book 7 (German) |
Iceland
The Icelandic book covers were absolutely terrifying.
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| Book 1 (Icelandic) |
Iran
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| Book 1 (Farsi — Iran) |
Italy
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| Book 1 (Italian) |
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| Book 3 (Italian) |
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| Book 7 (Italian) |
Japan
Very cool, very different.
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| Book 1 (Japanese) |
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| Book 2 (Japanese) |
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| Book 7 (Japanese) |
Latin America
I believe that many of the countries in Latin America used either these covers, or they used the U.S. covers with Spanish language titles. Couldn't figure out which countries used which, but I know that both Mexico and Argentina shared this cover art.
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| Book 2 (Spanish — Latin America) |
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| Book 4 (Spanish — Latin America) |
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| Book 7 (Spanish — Latin America) |
Netherlands
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| Book 5 (Dutch) |
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| Book 7 (Dutch) |
Portugal
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| Book 1 (Portugese) |
Spain
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| Book 1 (Spanish — Spain) |
Sweden
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| Book 1 (Swedish) |
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| Book 7 (Swedish) |
Ukraine
Bizarre? Is that the word?
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| Book 2 (Ukrainian) |
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| Book 5 (Ukrainian) |
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| Book 7 (Ukrainian) |
Vietnam
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| Book 1 (Vietnam) |
Bonus!
Check out these "Adult" covers that were widely popular in the U.K. You know, for grown-ups who didn't want the world to know that they were reading about wizards and stuff.
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| Book 4 (U.K. Adult) |
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| Book 7 (U.K. Adult) |
Also, many publishers have begun to re-release the books with new "special edition" artwork. I really like the Dutch redesign. Very minimal, but still fun.
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| Books 1-7 (Dutch redesign) |
And one more thing: here is the full, wraparound artwork for the French Deathly Hallows. Probably my favorite of the bunch.
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Did I miss your favorite Harry Potter cover art? Leave me links in the comments section!
Posts
AWESOME post here! I definitely had to +1 it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, James!! You get a golden snitch!
ReplyDelete^O^
I liked it, the Finnish ones FREAKED ME OUT! I got all of the Finnish covers from the Harry Potter wiki and put them on my desk top just in case I want to scare someone.
ReplyDelete