Thursday, July 26, 2007

Three Cheers for Mary Grand-Pre!

I was browsing over at The Leaky Cauldron, trying to get over some of my post-Harry melancholy, when I came across their page displaying the book covers from many different editions of the Harry Potter books all over the world. My first thought was, "Wow! Look how many different languages and countries these books are published in!" My second thought was, "Thank God we get the American version!!" Seriously, some of these covers are so bad, they make the books look like a cheap, tacky, dime-a-dozen silly kids' series--at best. Allow me to demonstrate. Here, for example, is the Ukranian cover of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone:


Please, tell me where Dumbledore got his hat! I must know! Oh wait, I see...he's just growing out of the castle.

Here is the Czech version of Philosopher's Stone, in which, apparently, the Sorting Hat is a top hat with giant lips:

But my absolute favorite, I have to say, is this Iranian (Iranian?!) version of Prisoner of Azkaban:

Notice the creepy gargoyle heads on the castle. Notice that Harry looks about 9 years old, and appears to be riding a flying armadillo. But in particular, I ask you to please notice the flying squirrel, the toad, and the tiger. Who are they? How did they come to be there? In Book 5, will Harry show up on Platform 9 3/4 with a tiger padding along behind him, hoping Malfoy won't notice anything funny going on? Or, perhaps, is a toad a grim omen of death in Iranian culture? Who exactly is translating these books? And what, exactly, are they going to do when they get to Book 7...?



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It does make me wonder if they added the Tiger in somehow. I know they translate things differently for different books. I want to know! Maybe in the Iranian version, Harry proves to be a silly little boy, and Voldemort, after a very kind warning, sends a tiger to that meddlesome Harry to eat him up and bring order back to the wizarding world.

Laurie said...

Hee-hee!!

I just assumed that the Marauders transformed into different animals. Maybe the whole book is set in a different locale, and the tiger fits in?? Bizarre.

8675309 said...

I dunno...I kind of like the Ukraine's "Rappi Hottep."