Creating children’s book covers has got to be a difficult job. Certainly a difficult job to do well. That split second where a kid eyes a book is so often a make or break moment. In person, those associated with the creation of cover art probably make good first impressions. Other people’s moms likely love them.
While I sometimes feel a particular cover doesn’t help a book, I’m usually at a loss to offer any way to improve the situation. Illustrator M.S. Corley is much more bold. He has taken the Harry Potter covers, given them a retro, “classic Penguin” treatment, and posted the results for all to see. Fun to look at – how do you think they’d fare among young readers?
(Thanks to BuzzFeed for the link. Click the image below to view the article)
100 Scope Notes 
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February 18, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Retro Harry | CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus
[…] to 100 Scopenotes for alerting us to the art of M.S. Corley and potential new cover designs for the Harry Potter […]
February 18, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Elizabeth
Nice. I think this cover would have done… well, I was about to say “better with older readers than the original,” but when your counterfactual involves Harry Potter selling better, it’s just not very plausible, is it?
Nevertheless, I adore this cover, but think it would have failed to attract the younger readers who I think were the book’s initial base.
February 19, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Emily
I like these graphically, but I agree with Elizabeth, I’m not sure the vintage look would have attracted kids as much as the more contemporary (and more colorful) ones. On the other hand, its hard to think that the covers were really the instrumental thing in Harry Potter becoming what it did – marketing matters, visual appeal matters, but this may be a nice example of a series that was going to get big no matter what the outside looked like.
February 19, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Scope Notes
Emily and Elizabeth, I concur. These covers would appeal more to older readers than younger ones – and probably to folks who are already fans of the series, rather than attracting new followers.
August 16, 2009 at 3:06 am
Link Du Jour: Narnia Covers Redone « 100 Scope Notes
[…] don’t get tired of these. Artist M. S. Corley, the man behind the recent redesign of the Harry Potter and His Dark Materials covers strikes again. This time he bestows the classic Penguin treatment on […]