Final Harry Potter Book Cover Released

The cover design of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series of novels by J. K. Rowling, has been released Wednesday by Scholastic Corp., the U.S. publisher of the novel.

Designed by illustrator Mary GrandPre, the front of the wraparound cover shows Harry, the boy wizard, as a teenager outstretching his left arm towards the orange sky, and on the back, spidery hands reach for Harry. Readers can see those hands belong to Potter's enemy, Lord Voldemort, whose glowing red eyes peer from under a hood only when they open the book.

"For the first time, the cover is a wraparound. On the back cover spidery hands are outstretched toward Harry. Only when the book is opened does one see a powerful image of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, his glowing red eyes peering out from his hood," Scholastic Vice President and Creative Director David Saylor said.

"The front cover of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows features a dramatic sky of oranges and golds. It depicts 17-year-old Harry with arm outstretched, reaching upward. The structures around Harry show evident destruction and in the shadows behind him, we see outlines of other people," said Saylor. “The structures around Harry show evident destruction and in the shadows behind him, we see outlines of other people," Saylor added.

Mary Grandpre is also the acclaimed illustrator of the six previous U.S. editions of Rowling’s fantasy series, which has sold more than 325 million copies worldwide. The first edition in the series, called “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone” in the U.S., was published in 1997, followed by “The Chamber of Secrets” (1999), “The Prisoner of Azkaban” (1999), “The Goblet of Fire” (2000), “The Order of the Phoenix” (2003), and “The Half-Blood Prince” (2005).

The “Deathly Hallows” is due in stores on July 21st at one minute past midnight i.e. at 12:01 a.m., and sales are expected to surpass the record-breaking sales achieved by the sixth volume, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which had a first printing of 10.8 million copies and sold 6.9 million within 24 hours.

The final entry in the series has an announced first printing of 12 million in the United States alone, and is expected to cost US$35.34 at full price and on pre-orders at a 50 percent discount, already topped the Amazon bestseller chart. In December, before Rowling had even finished writing the final book, Amazon took 200,000 orders in two days.

Released by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, Rowling's British publisher, the cover for the children's edition shows an adult-looking Harry, Hermione and Ron. The cover also shows photograph of a locket bearing a serpentine "S", believed to be the "horcrux" in which Lord Voldemort stores parts of his soul. Jewels, coins and armor surround them, and an unidentified house elf can be seen behind Harry, armed with a sword.

Shares of New York-based Scholastic, which is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books, rose 18 cents to $30.40 at 4:30 p.m. in NASDAQ Stock Market trading.