How come the British covers of Harry Potter are always so much cooler than the U.S. versions?
I'm not a Harry freak, but I've read them all, and I tried to buy most of them in UK editions for the cooler covers and the occasional neat British slang.
I wish they'd just leave it in for the American editions -- as a kid, I loved stumbling on new words from other cultures, and I can't think that today's kids would have such a giant problem with them, either.
10 comments:
The British kid's cover freaked me the frak out, but the adult one is indeed lovely.
I still prefer the orange Deathly Hallows though. But I'm with you on the brit-slang.
I SO agree! As a kid, I read a ton of Roald Dahl, and one of the things I loved most was the different slang and cultural references!
I've actually been re-reading the entire series in anticipation of the movie and the last book (I'm almost done with book 5, so I'm right on track), and I've noticed, as far as "british-isms" are concerned, that they seem to have scaled back the americanization after the first book. By the fifth, there are jumpers, gits, and a whole lot of other terms that I've actually noticed as particularly british precisely because of how much they scrubbed the first book. Anyway. I agree - european covers are always better than american ones, and not just for HP.
The Canadian cover is interesting. I'm pretty sure our versions get the British slang.
I guess I've always thought the opposite. But to each their own. It would be fun to get the Bristish version of the text though! I would agree the latest and last book does have a rather boring cover compared to the rest.
I prefer the US covers myself. I think Mary GrandPre does an excellent job. Have you seen the Deluxe cover yet? (Warning: contains spoilers)
http://gallery.the-leaky-cauldron.org/picture/163167
Arthur Levine at Scholastic specifically requested this scene - he said it was one of his favorite scenes in the book.
I do agree about the text - I don't think they needed to American-ize it for us.
The British kids covers are so ugly, but the adult ones I agree are really neat.
I like the American covers, but I do wish they would leave the text intact.
I am still confused as to why they changed the title to the first novel. Are US kids that dumb that they wouldn't understand the concept of a Philosopher's Stone?
I'm glad that Canada goes for the UK version because I like my extra u's and ending words with 'mme'.
I too prefer the US versions. The UK adult covers are fine, if a bit bland, but the kids covers are terrible. The Deathly Hallows cover makes Harry look like he's 40 years old and Hermione looks like a member of his harem.
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