Q. I’m confused about what to do when shortening the titles of books. The author refers to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as Alice in Wonderland, and I think that it should remain italicized. In addition, there is a dialogue in which a character asks, “Do you remember in Harry Potter, when the students are walking up the stairs?” I also think this should be italicized, but I can’t find an answer.
A. If a phrase is part of a book title, make it italic. This lets readers know you’re referring to a book (or movie, actually, which we also italicize) rather than a person or place. In the case of Harry Potter, there’s a whole series of books, and Chicago style puts series titles in roman type: the Harry Potter series. This means that in some contexts it won’t really matter whether you use italics or not, since either meaning (book or series) will do. It also means that sometimes you’ll want to be a little more specific: “Do you remember in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, when the students are walking up the stairs?”