Book cover--various

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 54089

Devika wrote:

>Harry looks so much older! 

I think MG is doing this deliberately.  He looks older
in each one, IMO.  Maybe seeing the cover is why I
dreamed last night that I was kissing a 15- or
16-year-old Harry passionately [she said, blushing]? 
I was 16 in the dream, so don't call the cops.

I agree with Anne Mehr that while she still has a very
stylized way of drawing people--not like, say, the
Harrys on the UK CS-PA-GF covers, which are quite
realistic--there's a jump in realism from PA to GF. 
That might reflect a change in her style or her take
on the books rather than a deliberate progression,
since I don't see much difference among SS, CS and PA
in this regard; all three are quite cartoonish.  I
think this one takes a further step beyond GF; it's
largely the monochromatic blue that makes it grittier
than GF.

I'm pleased that she's continuing her trend of putting
the "and the _______" in some kind of appropriate
script.  

Patricia wrote:

>Previous covers have not portrayed a single
>particular scene from the book. Rather, Mary GrandPre
>in the past has combined significant events
>and characters from many parts of the book. 

Well, yes and no.  CS and PA definitely show precise
moments from the book:  the flight out of the Chamber
and the rescue of Sirius, respectively.  And the other
two, while an amalgamation, do portray real moments. 
There's enough precedent for us to pick this one apart
for clues about a canon event.  <g>

>Melissa (who was obsessing over not being able to see
>the front of his robes to learn if there was a
>prefects badge there.) 

Hee!  Well, MG doesn't pay much attention to proper
costume details.  She keeps putting him in a cape
rather than a robe, for starters.

What I'm loving most about this cover is the ambiguous
expression on Harry's face.  That combined with the
movement in the room (the blowing candles) and the
fact that he is in mid-turn suggests a moment where
one response flows into another, as if he is turning
in response to a sound or the breath of wind and the
reaction to whatever is there has yet to pass over his
face.  Or of course he could just be checking that no
one is following him, or that someone who is supposed
to be following him is . . .

Amy
who never got to do this with the first four because
she was too busy leaping into the text to meditate on
the cover, and is having a *lot* of fun

=====
Naturally, the common people don't want war. . . But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along. . . . Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.  That is easy.  All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.  It works the same in any country.
                                                                            --Hermann Goering, 1946

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