differences between the British and American publications.

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 160594

---  "wisteria053" <mpvillas at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> ---  "Heather Collins" <hcollins@> wrote:
> >
> > Does anyone know why there were (albeit slight) 
> > differences in the text of the British and American 
> > publications of the books?
> >
> >
> > These differences consisted mainly of the way phrases
> > were worded.
> > <SNIP>

> wisteria053:
> 
> My son and I were at a lunch for the Book 4 launch and
> Jo said that she had not wanted there to be any 
> differences, but the American publishers convinced her
> that young US-based readers wouldn't understand her 
> otherwise.  That said, some of the differences are so
> minor they don't make sense for the reason stated.
> 
> See http://www.hp-lexicon.org/about/books/differences.html
> 
> 
> wisteria053
>

bboyminn:

I think in the beginning there were substantial changes
but in the latest book there are very very few. I think
in the Sixth book I can only think of one major point that 
was changed.

In the book Fred and George are trying to raise Harry's
spirits and they tell him to 'keep his pecker up'. THAT
has quite a different meaning in the USA than it does
in Britian. In Britain 'pecker' refers to the heart, so
'keep your pecker up' means 'take heart' or don't let 
your spirits get down. In the USA, I'm sure that phrase
would have cause a great deal of adolesent and 
pre-adolesent snickering and giggling.

But more common phrases are now taken for granted, and
the publishers simply trust that people have it figured
out by now.

Just a thought.

Steve/bboyminn