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A controversial new cover for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

A random selection of previous Charlie and the Chocolate Factory covers

A controversial new cover for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The New Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Cover

The New Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Cover


Penguin
has announced their intention to republish Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a Penguin Modern Classic. Due to be released this September to celebrate the books 50th anniversary, this edition has a new cover which, although is to be published in the UK only, has been making the news around the world.

I really don’t like the new cover, which is both ominous and creepy, and I have to wonder – have they forgotten that this is essentially a children’s book…

What do you think?

A random selection of previous Charlie and the Chocolate Factory covers

A random selection of previous Charlie and the Chocolate Factory covers

 

14 Comments

  1. I’m really not a big fan of the new cover. I can see what they’re trying to do – giving a children’s book an adult cover that focuses on the themes at play that an adult would pick up on, and it does play on the creepy elements of the novel too, but really for a much loved children’s classic they’d be safer going with a “nice” cover. Then again, maybe they didn’t want to be safe.

    R x

  2. Ugh, no! What is on that cover?! That is NOT what I picture when I think of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 🙁 I’m glad I have a version with a nicer cover 🙂

  3. That cover does not represent anything from the Charlie that I know and love. How very disappointing. (Wow, just re-read my comment and I sound very much like an old nanna. But I very much disapprove!)

  4. I do not like the cover at all. I usually don’t like it when they change a cover. Plus that is one of my favorite books, I want it to stay the same 🙁

  5. Urgh yeah, I remember when I first saw this posted on Twitter, seriously what were they thinking???

  6. Oh I recently did a feature on this for Women24 and I must say that I couldn’t agree more! The new covers are beyond creepy!

  7. That cover gives me the creeps. What are they thinking?

  8. I don’t mind adult covers for popular children’s books either, since they have significant adult readerships and find their way into academia. But this…

    I just don’t understand why Penguin chose it. From what I remember of the novel (it’s been ages since I read it) the child represented on the cover is a total brat, and many of Roald Dahl’s characters are kind of amusingly sinister, but this creepy doll-child just doesn’t capture the feel of the book at all.

  9. I had not heard of this, that cover is just…bad. If I didn’t know what it was I would never consider buying something with that atrocious cover and this is one of my all time favorite books!

  10. Ugh I dislike the new cover a lot! I’m all for making adult-looking versions of children’s books, because I am all for beautiful, interesting design regardless of who it is marketed to or what year it was designed in. (I’m a graphic designer by training…)

    I think it would have been better to go with some contemporary calligraphy, or a hand-drawn pattern of some kind, rather than a creepy photograph.

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