Monday, August 4, 2014

Harry Potter UK Covers

OK.. I am sure most of you have seen these by now.  But I have been busy and haven't been able to post up the blog posts I have been wanting to chat about. So here it is.  In these covers I think Harry looks 11 in each cover.. he should be way older for book 7. There should've been more again. Also.. the covers seem to give away a lot of plot points.. maybe even spoilers??  For example, cover for book two shows the basilisk as the monster attacking the students.  What if you were a brand new reader to the series and never knew that.  Of course.. I hope I didn't spoil that for anyone reading this post. This is "Harry Potter and the Spoiler Alert" of covers... hahah!  I do love any Harry Potter art though and seeing new covers is fun. My favorite cover is book 4's cover.  I love the dragon.  I actually also do love the way Harry looks.  Kind of anime, kind of girly. Just a really different take on what we've seen before.  What do you think of these covers??




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37 comments:

  1. Yeah, some of these covers are sort of spoilery. I really like the fourth cover, too, and also the third cover. I'm actually not a fan of how feminine Harry looks, though. Just my opinion. Thanks for sharing :)

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  2. I just saw these a few days ago. I love them! I want them so bad, but I already have two versions of each Harry Potter books and three of Sorcerer's Stone. I don't think my husband would agree to more, lol.

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  3. You know as someone who is in the process of reading the Harry Potter series for the first time I don't think they are too spoilerish unless you know what is taking place. Having read the second book it does give the ending away but the rest that I haven't read, I have no clue as to what will happen. As long as you don't look at the cover too closely while reading that particular book it probably won't give anything away.

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  4. The covers do give a bit away, but if you're an entirely new reader, you might not realize what everything means...so overall, I think it's okay. I love seeing all the new HP covers. It's funny that Harry doesn't really seem to age, but I like the look. :)

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.blogspot.com

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  5. I love these covers! I think #1 and #3 are my favorite. They are a teensy bit on the spoiler side but I almost think Harry Potter is past spoiler territory. At this point it's kind of like giving away the ending to Jane Eyre or Pride and Prejudice. It's so everywhere you just can't avoid it. I do wish Harry looked older as the books progress. He looks the same age to me on the first cover and the 7th.

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  6. Hmms the covers are pretty but I am not sure about the drawing of Harry..he looks too feminine to me and young!

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  7. I really like them! 5 and 6 are probably my favorite.

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  8. I thought the same thing! Harry is too young and SPOILER ALERT!

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  9. Not a fan. Harry looks like a girl especially on #2! His hair is out of CONTROL!

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  10. Honestly, I think Harry looks a bit girly in these illustrations. I really liked the last "new redesign" they did (aren't they always redoing the HP covers? Seems like). But these are pretty gorgeous, despite all that hair on Harry's head!!

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  11. I think the covers are gorgeous art. But you make several really good points about him not quite aging as much as he should and the spoilers. These are books created, I think, for Harry Potter fans. But there are kids that are just getting old enough to start reading these and the covers are totally spoilery. And then back to the age thing - I suspect they did it because they want them to sell as middle grade novels. And if Harry looks too old it's not as easily marketable as middle grade. But 6 and 7 *aren't* middle grade novels. The novels totally matured with that one generation of readers and now I'd tell my kids - well, you can start reading them when you're 8. But you're going to have to stop around book 4 until you're old enough.

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  12. The covers are absolutely beautiful, but yeah, Harry looks too young.

    They are very striking, though!

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  13. Harry does look girly... but personally I kind of like it. I like the long hair and I really love his glasses. The third cover is full of spoiler!! We didn't know what Harry's patronous is until that moment! So that cover just lets us all know.

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  14. I want to own all the Harry Potter editions. Though I am not sure if I can order these books since I am in the US. How does that even work I wonder?

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  15. You are a perfect example of someone to ask!! Thank you Ang! I didn't even think about asking you (I forgot you were reading them for the first time). So I am glad to hear this... I was wondering how a future Harry Potter reader would feel about this. As someone who has read the books all I see is big plot spoilers... but I can see how a new reader would have no idea what is going on.

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  16. I love all Harry Potter cover art ...well ... OK.. I lie. I don't care for the original UK covers. I don't really enjoy that art. But I do like all the US covers and these.

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  17. That does bring up the question... when exactly is something past spoilers??? My little cousin is reading Harry Potter for the first time. She has not read the books or seen the movies. Everything is new and a surprise for her. Do we take away that surprise because the books have been out for a while??? I don't know?? That brings up big spoiler discussions.

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  18. Those are the big complaints about Harry's look. I should go check out the other work of the artist. It looks like he does a lot of children's books. I included a picture here. I still wonder why he didn't age Harry more.

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  19. How fun it is to pick your favorite?? I looked a the covers for a while before I picked one!

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  20. I actually like his hair!! HAHAAHHA! I feel like the covers are very British and that the UK will appreciate the covers more then the US.

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  21. The covers have only been redone once in the US, and once in the UK. So these are the new UK covers. I really like these covers also though.. they have gorgeous colors.

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  22. I agree... I would hang these as art in my house.

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  23. You are so right about the future books... they stopped being books for middle school by then. Much more young adult books. I didn't think about the marketing side of the covers. They would want to sell these to future generations of children so having a child on the cover is the perfect way to do this.

    My little cousin is just starting these books. She is 6 and my aunt is reading her book 1. Then next year book 2, and so on. Same with the movie. One movie a year until she is old enough.

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  24. I ordered my UK editions from amazon.co.uk. I created an account there and just had them ship it to my home.

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  25. Good to know. I didn't know if that was legal or how that whole thing worked. So fun!!!

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  26. That's how I did it - I wasn't allowed to read the next book until I'd seen the movie of the book I just read. And by "allowed" I mean it was a game my sister and I played so we both weren't allowed. And also it wasn't a matter of being old enough for the movies - it was a matter of waiting for them to be made and released :)

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  27. I think for future readers down the road, unless you have made a point to avoid the movies (that are on TV almost 24/7) like I have you are going to already know what is happening anyway. I don't think the covers reveal anything more than movie previews and commercials. I must say though, I much prefer the covers of the 15th Anniversary Paperback box set I got for Christmas last year, I like the subtle coloring as opposed to the bright colors on these.

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  28. It definitely brings up a discussion and not one I've really thought about. I think where in a weird in between territory with Harry Potter. With as everywhere as it is I don't think we can expect to stay completely spoiler free but that doesn't mean we should be careless with spoilers. Like if you see someone reading book X you don't lead with "Oh that's the one Character A died in!"

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  29. Yeah, I'm not sure if I was supposed to do that or not, but it worked, lol.

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  30. I think these are pretty interesting covers- like you said (and this I hadn't actually thought about before) he doesn't seem to age. It's more in his stance than looks, I guess, because looking at the first cover and then the last, you can tell, I think, that he's grown mentally, been through a lot.
    I'd say the first or the third is my favourite.

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  31. I showed the covers to some friends. The one they really thought was a big spoiler is the cover for book 2 and I have to agree with that. There is a huge snake on the cover!! I mean .. we don't know about the snake until the very end of that book.

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  32. My cousin is reading the series right now. She is 6. Her mom hasn't let her watch the movies because they are too old for her. This year they are reading the first book and then will watch the first movie. So it is for a generation like that I am talking about. It is true though if you are older.. there is probably no way you have missed the movies or heard people talking about the books. Though my cousin will probably ending up being spoiled about the books in school or on the internet as she gets older now that I think about it. Which is a little too bad!!

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  33. We had to wait for the movies too.. I miss those days!

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  34. I always like to look at Harry Potter covers and evaluate them. Like I am some sort of major critic or something. :)

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  35. I agree with The Chamber of Secrets cover, that is a bit of spoiler there. I don't like the covers that much, but I expect that these are aimed at kids. I just showed my son who's 9 and he thinks they're "awesome".

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  36. LOL! Well .. I am glad he thinks they are cool. He is the target audience so I suppose if he likes them then they are awesome!! It is probably hard to create something new for something so loved. It's like any time there is a new movie based off a book everyone goes crazy over who is cast as a character we love.

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