Well, it’s about that time. Two decades have passed and JK Rowling has issued illustrated versions of her first two Harry Potter books. The first one came out last October and the second one came out this month.
8 out of 10 stars for the illustrated editions.
Pros
Most of the illustrations are beautiful.
The pages are very thick and easy to read.
It comes in a nice hardcover.
They are currently 50% off.
Cons
They are only releasing these one at a time, one each year. That means your set won’t be complete for another five years at least. If something happens to the negotiations, the author, or the illustrator in the meantime, you’ll have an incomplete set.
Some of the illustrations are disappointing. They are not what I picture when I read these novels. For example, Hogwarts is small and unimpressive. Hermione looks completely different without the well-known rabbit teeth and wild hair. Ron appears twice and looks completely different in both illustrations. Many of the illlustrations are very small, not even worth including in this review because they are so tiny.
The things the illustrator chose to illustrate were odd. Four pages were devoted to Diagon Alley, two pages were devoted to the dragon, and one tiny page was devoted to Hogwarts. Since the first book is all about Harry’s introduction to Hogwart’s, that’s very anticlimactic.
The book itself is abridged. That was the most disappointing of all. Without going through the novels word by word I don’t know which sections were omitted from the books and that’s like losing something you love.
The books are very large and heavy, making it difficult to travel with them or read them to your children at bedtime.
8 out of 10 stars. They’re beautiful books, but know what you’re getting before you buy. The copies I bought from Amazon were totally trashed so I bought them on eBay where they were in new condition. (Yep, I was surprised too.)
Illustrations
Reviewed by Colleen, a huge Harry Potter fan.
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