Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: The Illustrated Edition

A beautiful illustrated edition of what can almost (and probably should) be considered a classic at

Now, while this first book alone might be rightly criticized for a few specific shortcomings and I might have rated it four stars if that was the only thing I were judging... this Illustrated Edition is just stunning, absolutely gorgeous. The price point at which it is currently being sold is a great deal for what may as well be a combination of novel and Potter-themed Jim Kay artbook: the complete, unabridged text (which, except for the change of "Philosopher's Stone" to "Sorcerer's Stone," also presents American buyers with what is so far their only official means of purchasing the original British text without import or e-platform region-trickery) shares its page space here with a wealth of stunning illustrations; characters, scenes, locations, and imagery throughout the books faithfully brought to visual life with no loyalty paid by the illustrator whatsoever toward the established movie-based appearances of people, places, or characters, favoring instead fresh interpretations of the descriptions given of characters within the text itself. It is worth mentioning that though the illustrated Hagrid very closely resembles his film counterpart, his film counterpart already resembled his book description and Mary GrandPré's illustrations of him to a T as it was. Other characters such as Harry's friends or Severus Snape are far further from their film counterparts while still retaining loyalty to their book descriptions. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I thought Snape's appearance in the books couldn't be faithfully visualized in any way apart from the costume and hair stylings of Alan Rickman's portrayal until this book's ever-so-creepy version proved me wrong; and as for our young heroes, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, their illustrations pay more dues to their book-counterpart physical shortcomings than they film actors could be expected to, with Ron appearing much more freckly and gangly, and Hermione's bushy hair and larger-than-average teeth featuring more pr...