This article was found in People Magazine, December 18, 2000 on page 111

It isn't that Mary GrandPr� doesn't love her Harry. After all, he has her chin, the gleam in the eye and, like her, too many bad hair days. It's just that the lovable little guy has virtually taken over the Minnesota artist's life. " I can't wait," says GrandPr�, "until Harry turns 18 and moves out of the house!" She refers of course to Harry Potter. Like millions of fans worldwide, GrandPr�, 46, can be pardoned for treating the young wizard as a real life boy rather than merely the central character in British author J.K. Rowling's phenomenally sucessful children's book series, of which Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth and latest installment. Rowling may have given Harry life, but illustrator GrandPr� gave him his good looks. Not that she's the only Harry Potter illustrator in the world (the UK edition for instance has a different illustrator), but it is GrandPr�'s drawings that reach the largest number of readers--some 25 million Americans--as well as those in South Korea, Poland, Portugal, Estonia and other countries. GrandPr� really does know Harry intimately: Only after reading each book several times does she begin to create her signature pastel covers and the black-and-white charcoal drawings that open each chapter. "I read an English version of Harry Potter, and it wasn't as fun without Mary's pictures," says David Kirk, illustrator of the Little Miss Spider book series. Rowling apparently feels the same, says GrandPr�, who met the author and her daughter, Jessica,7, for the first time about a year ago. "We had dinner together, and she told me my covers are her favorite," says GrandPr�. "Harry Potter was one of the best things for Mary," says her agent, Beth Jones. "But it in no way touches the rest of Mary's talent." GrandPr� was already a respected artist when Harry entered her life in 1996. So when Scholastic Inc., Rowling's US publisher, asked GrandPr� to illustrate a book about a boy with magical powers, she thought it sounded sweet.

If you want the rest of the article, buy it yourself...sorry I just don't have time to finish typing it up. Besides that, I won't have the magazine later, so this is it. I think you can get the gist of what it's saying. Sorry!