I like the early British/Canadian covers, but for HP7 I think the American one looks MUCH better--less busy, more suited to the tone of the story. My theory is that since in the UK they release a separate cover for the adult market, the regular cover is more a "kid's book" look than in the US where the 40-something nurse manager on my bus route and her 10-year-old daughter are reading the same edition.

Okay, this will brand me as crazy, but I kind of love those primitive illustrations on the French covers.

Then there are the "Adult Editions", which are okay, but boring:

Phoenix: [link]

Half-Blood Prince: [link]

Azkaban: [link]

I like the adult Half-Blood Prince. The others, NSM.

I like the Azkaban one, it's ominous and elegant.

Yeah, at first, the very existence of the "adult" covers amused me, but they are rather pretty in their own way.

The OotP one is very third-reich.

German edition of GoF

And HBP

Those Germans are some wacky folks. I wonder what the Japanese covers look like.

I love the diversity of the covers and I do wonder how much that shapes people's reading? Did anyone else read the article in EW on the illustrator of the US editions?

I did! This whole discussion was reminding me of it. It's odd because she looks to be J.K.'s right-hand gal, yet she does the U.S. covers, not the U.K. covers.