Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Illustrated Version Review)

 It is no secret that I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I have read all the books a number of times. So when I found out that the an illustrated version of the first book was being released I was super excited. I was not able to get it right away though since it was released close to my birthday and the holidays. And I am forbidden by family members to buy anything for myself for those two months, so I had to be patient and wait.

I received the book for Christmas and began reading immediately, even though I was in the middle of another book at the time. I was eager to see what the illustrations looked like and how they affected the way I read the story.

Jim Kay has created some beautiful illustrations for this story. I flipped through the pages at first before reading just to see what the pictures looked like. They are bright and so full of gorgeous detail. Each picture is unique and has some fantastic colors to make your eyes drink in the scenes. They compliment the story perfectly.

As I read I found myself looking over the picture and easily falling into that scene. I love the illustrations because you can tell they are not based off the movies. The pictures are unique to themselves and I could tell this is how he saw the characters and the scenes play out.

The illustrations help the story flow forward and create and an even fuller world as you read. I highly recommend this version to anyone who has read the books before or has been looking for a reason to start reading them. For those who need a bit of visual representations to help pull them through a story, there is no better way to do that than with this version of the first book. For those who have read the series a number of times, this gives yet another dimension to the stories and opens up a beautiful new way to see the Harry Potter world.

It has been added to my Harry Potter shelf and I hope to one day use it to introduce my children (when I have them) to the Harry Potter world.