The inside pages have no illustrations anywhere, not even at the beginning of each chapter, and the whole book is laid out in the same serif font. The cover design is very linear, the illustration is pretty standard, and the title font is a very functional serif. So in terms of design style, etc – the designs are contemporary to each other, and both targeted the same audience, albeit in different countries. Here is the UK version of the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – the cover and one inside spread:Īnd here is the US version of the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – the cover and one inside spread:īoth of these are the first editions – printed in the late 1990s.
Now, keep in mind that I am American, so this may have swayed my opinion here, but there were key differences in the design and layout of the book itself and the text that I want to discuss. When I looked at the two books, the differences were astounding.
The UK version was printed by Bloomsbury and the US version by a division of Scholastic. Why is this relevant? Well, because the US and the UK both have separate printings of the book. We ended up borrowing them – we borrowed book two from a Briton, and book three from an American. We just finished reading the first book, as an ebook, and I went off in search of the next couple of books in print format. I recently introduced him to the magic of Harry Potter. My sons are teenagers, and my fifteen-year-old will not allow me to see that he listens to my stories, but my thirteen-year-old son still openly embraces being read to.
But I am not so discerning about my listeners – I truly believe that nobody is too old to enjoy a good story.
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