by David Haber, Wizard News Wizard

This morning, Scholastic released the exclusive deluxe edition artwork for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The dramatic art for the cover was created by Mary GrandPre, the acclaimed illustrator of all US editions of the Harry Potter books.

The new cover is similar to the normal cover of the book, in that it features both Harry and Dumbledore, but now, instead of peering into the penseive, as on the US cover, or being surrounded by rings of fire on the UK cover, on the deluxe edition, we see Harry and Dumbledore exploring what appears to be the forbidden forest together, something they've never done before in any of the previous stories.

According to Scholastic, the Deluxe Edition will include a 32-page insert featuring near scale reproductions of Mary GrandPre's interior art for the book, as well as never-before-seen full-color frontispiece art on special paper. The custom designed slipcase is foil-stamped and inside is a full-cloth case book, blind-stamped on front and back cover, foil stamped on spine. The book includes full-color endpapers with jacket art from the trade edition and a wraparound jacket featuring exclusive art from Mary GrandPre.

The deluxe edition will be a total of 704 pages and have a retail value of $60.00. The print run for the deluxe edition will be 100,000 copies, and will be published simultaneously with the trade edition. J.K. Rowling's sixth Harry Potter book is due in stores on July 16th.

Related articles:

•	Publishers release Half-Blood Prince covers (3/8/05)

Published May 11, 2005

This article is Copyright © 2005, David Haber, and may not be reproduced on other web sites or in print, in whole or in part, without expressed permission