I am not the world’s biggest Harry Potter fan but I absolutely can’t wait to get my hands on the new, fully-illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. It is illustrated by the wonderful Jim Kay, whose illustrations I first got introduced to in Patrick Ness’ A Monster Calls. Those illustrations were in black and white but his illustrations for Harry Potter are in colour and they look absolutely gorgeous! A number of different spreads from the book have been released recently and with each new page I fall more in love with this book. I imagine it can’t be easy illustrating a hugely popular book like this, especially after all the movies have been released, but it certainly looks like Jim has done an amazing job.
The cover alone shows you the magic that awaits inside the pages of this book:
Check out this sneak peek inside the book from the Bloomsbury UK website!
Watch this short video of Jim Kay explaining his illustrating process for the book:
The Illustrated Edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling and illustrated by Jim Kay is released in October by Bloomsbury Publishers. It is supplied in NZ by Allen and Unwin NZ.
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I had to chuckle at Bloomsbury attempting to squeeze more money out of Harry Potter. But they and Jim Kay have done a wonderful job and they should be successful—unless the price puts people off. $62.16 at fishpond.co.nz certainly put me off!
Yes it is rather pricey but I would imagine that it would be somewhat of a collectors item for huge Harry Potter fans. I would buy it just for the illustrations, never mind the story.
Well I love Harry Potter, and I’ve got the book ordered already. The Website is brilliant – also plenty to download for quizzes etc.
Cheers Chris