Written by Tasya
Happy birthday to our favourite wizard, Harry James Potter! The first book was released in June 1997, but Harry celebrates his birthday on July 31st, hence this little special celebration!
We all know Harry Potter, which is arguably one of the best-selling books ever. It has sold over 500 million copies and translated into over 80 languages. In fact, Bloomsbury has gone so far as to translated the book into Ancient Greek and Latin. Over 20 years later and with an eight movie franchise, Harry Potter is a worldwide phenomenon that has been printed and reprinted all over the world. Some countries used the original cover when they are translating the books, but others also chose to came up and release the translated books with their own covers. To celebrate the magic, today we are collecting Harry Potter covers from all around the world!
UK
As this is the story where the series come from, it’s not a wonder that they have extensive selection of covers. First, of course we have the original UK cover and stuck around from 1997 to 2007. The original title for the first book was Philosopher’s Stone, but they changed it to “Sorcerer’s” for the US market because they didn’t think Philosopher seemed enticing enough for children. Then they released these gorgeous new covers that capture the magic even better in 2014, along with an array of others including the adult edition, 10th anniversary edition, the illustrated edition, gift edition, signature edition, and 20th anniversary edition.
US
The US edition is also well-known because it was often used to publish the books in other countries. The first one was released in the 1997 by Scholastic, who then also released the 15th anniversary edition. The special edition spines will form an image of Hogwarts just like in the first movie. They also released the illustrated and Hogwarts houses as a 20th anniversary edition and these gorgeous black and white cover is courtesy of Brian Selznick, who is famous for his other works such as The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Wonderstruck, and The Marvels. Another edition I found from the US is the Braille edition, which brings the magic more people!
Spain
Spain has four gorgeous covers with the first two released by Salamandra and I love how they try to use both the UK and US covers but make it their own with Harry is riding a broom (US) or standing nearby the Hogwarts Express (UK)!
Germany
Carlsen published all the Harry Potter books in Germany and so far it has released 3 editions, with the third one being the special 20th anniversary and it will be released in August 31st, 2018.
Italy
I think it’s the most unique in this list because yes, it does features Harry in its covers, but who is that giant mouse?? Anyway, I think this is a really good cover and reminds me of The Little Prince, which might be the aim to attract more children to read the story.
Sweden
Probably one of my favourite international covers as I love how magical this one seems, with Harry flying along with vibrant colours and stars thrown around in the background.
Finland
I also love this one, it just looks so cartoon-ish and it looks at how I imagined the wizard chess would look like. Also, the characters illustration are on point with the book description!
Indonesia
This edition has recently released, and I love it so much that I eye it every time I go to the bookstores. They don’t use a lot of colour, but there are tons of details and characters in the cover illustration and the center stage is always an animal associated with the series. So for example, the Chamber of Secrets will have Fawkes, Prisoner of Azkaban will have Buckbeak, and so on.
France
Just like the UK edition, France has two covers to appeal to wide range of age: the original cover and the adult edition. The original edition has a cute illustration while the adult one has that dark, whimsical tone to it.
Czech
I love how they try to include everything from the sorting scene: the magical ceiling, teacher’s table, and Harry in front wearing the sorting hat. They even include the ghost, which despite being inaccurate, is such a cute addition to the cover.
Russia
Unlike the cover from other countries on this list, the Russian one definitely has a darker tone. They chose a pretty good colour scheme though, the gold and copper really stands out against the black background.
Ukraine
And finally, we have the Ukrainian cover. I think they try to include everything from the story and I think they also succeed quite well in it. It’s a lovely cover and captures the story really well.
