Title: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Series: Harry Potter, #1
Author: J.K. Rowling & Jim Kay (Illustrator)
Genre: Middle Grade > Young Adult, Fantasy, Fiction
Publication Date: October 6th, 2015 by Arthur A. Levine Books
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Rating:
The landmark publishing event of 2015 -- a full-colour illustrated edition of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone with breathtaking illustrations by Jim Kay, winner of the Kate Greenaway medal.
For the first time, J.K. Rowling's beloved Harry Potter books will be presented in lavishly illustrated full-color editions. Prepare to be spellbound by Jim Kay's dazzling depiction of the wizarding world and much loved characters in this full-colour illustrated hardback edition of the nation's favourite children's book -- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Jim Kay has created over 100 stunning illustrations, making this deluxe format a perfect gift as much for a child being introduced to the series, as for the dedicated fan. Brimming with rich detail and humour that perfectly complements J.K. Rowling's timeless classic, Jim Kay's glorious illustrations will captivate fans and new readers alike.
When a letter arrives for unhappy but ordinary Harry Potter, a decade-old secret is revealed to him that apparently he's the last to know. His parents were wizards, killed by a Dark Lord's curse when Harry was just a baby, and which he somehow survived. Leaving his unsympathetic aunt and uncle for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry stumbles upon a sinister mystery when he finds a three-headed dog guarding a room on the third floor. Then he hears of a missing stone with astonishing powers, which could be valuable, dangerous -- or both. An incredible adventure is about to begin!
For the first time, J.K. Rowling's beloved Harry Potter books will be presented in lavishly illustrated full-color editions. Prepare to be spellbound by Jim Kay's dazzling depiction of the wizarding world and much loved characters in this full-colour illustrated hardback edition of the nation's favourite children's book -- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Jim Kay has created over 100 stunning illustrations, making this deluxe format a perfect gift as much for a child being introduced to the series, as for the dedicated fan. Brimming with rich detail and humour that perfectly complements J.K. Rowling's timeless classic, Jim Kay's glorious illustrations will captivate fans and new readers alike.
When a letter arrives for unhappy but ordinary Harry Potter, a decade-old secret is revealed to him that apparently he's the last to know. His parents were wizards, killed by a Dark Lord's curse when Harry was just a baby, and which he somehow survived. Leaving his unsympathetic aunt and uncle for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry stumbles upon a sinister mystery when he finds a three-headed dog guarding a room on the third floor. Then he hears of a missing stone with astonishing powers, which could be valuable, dangerous -- or both. An incredible adventure is about to begin!
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is a re-read for me and I had so much fun re-reading the Illustrated edition of this amazing book. I don't think I have to go into any details about Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone because I think every reader knows what The Harry Potter series is about. When I first heard that there was going to be new Illustrated Harry Potter books back in 2015 when I started book blogging I wanted to get my hands on it. But I never got the chance to check it out from the library because it always checked out and a lot of people have the book on hold.
But I've been having an itch and wanted to re-read The Harry Potter books for quite a while now, so when I got the chance to check the Illustrated edition from the library this month. And I can't tell you how much I fell in love with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone again, Jim Kay illustration is so gorgeous and very detailed that I could just stare all day at the illustration. Once again I got addicted to the plotline and aspect of the book I couldn't put this book down. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is such a nostalgic atmospheric book for me that I am so happy that I decided to re-read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone this year. Now there are some things that have been cut-off in the Illustrated Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone book that was in the physical book of this book which I understand why they had to cut some things off.
But I wanted to let readers know that there is some things cut-off in this book than the original physical book but it still an amazing and fantastic book to read with all the new gorgeous illustration in the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. All and all I love everything in the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone that I can't wait to read the next of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets book I already have it check out from the library. I so can't wait to start to read it soon.
J.K. Rowling (Author)
See also: Robert Galbraith
Although she writes under the pen name J.K. Rowling, pronounced like rolling, her name when her first Harry Potter book was published was simply Joanne Rowling. Anticipating that the target audience of young boys might not want to read a book written by a woman, her publishers demanded that she use two initials, rather than her full name. As she had no middle name, she chose K as the second initial of her pen name, from her paternal grandmother Kathleen Ada Bulgen Rowling. She calls herself Jo and has said, "No one ever called me 'Joanne' when I was young, unless they were angry." Following her marriage, she has sometimes used the name Joanne Murray when conducting personal business. During the Leveson Inquiry she gave evidence under the name of Joanne Kathleen Rowling. In a 2012 interview, Rowling noted that she no longer cared that people pronounced her name incorrectly.
Rowling was born to Peter James Rowling, a Rolls-Royce aircraft engineer, and Anne Rowling (née Volant), on 31 July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England, 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Bristol. Her mother Anne was half-French and half-Scottish. Her parents first met on a train departing from King's Cross Station bound for Arbroath in 1964. They married on 14 March 1965. Her mother's maternal grandfather, Dugald Campbell, was born in Lamlash on the Isle of Arran. Her mother's paternal grandfather, Louis Volant, was awarded the Croix de Guerre for exceptional bravery in defending the village of Courcelles-le-Comte during the First World War.
Rowling's sister Dianne was born at their home when Rowling was 23 months old. The family moved to the nearby village Winterbourne when Rowling was four. She attended St Michael's Primary School, a school founded by abolitionist William Wilberforce and education reformer Hannah More. Her headmaster at St Michael's, Alfred Dunn, has been suggested as the inspiration for the Harry Potter headmaster Albus Dumbledore.
As a child, Rowling often wrote fantasy stories, which she would usually then read to her sister. She recalls that: "I can still remember me telling her a story in which she fell down a rabbit hole and was fed strawberries by the rabbit family inside it. Certainly the first story I ever wrote down (when I was five or six) was about a rabbit called Rabbit. He got the measles and was visited by his friends, including a giant bee called Miss Bee." At the age of nine, Rowling moved to Church Cottage in the Gloucestershire village of Tutshill, close to Chepstow, Wales. When she was a young teenager, her great aunt, who Rowling said "taught classics and approved of a thirst for knowledge, even of a questionable kind," gave her a very old copy of Jessica Mitford's autobiography, Hons and Rebels. Mitford became Rowling's heroine, and Rowling subsequently read all of her books.
Rowling has said of her teenage years, in an interview with The New Yorker, "I wasn’t particularly happy. I think it’s a dreadful time of life." She had a difficult homelife; her mother was ill and she had a difficult relationship with her father (she is no longer on speaking terms with him). She attended secondary school at Wyedean School and College, where her mother had worked as a technician in the science department. Rowling said of her adolescence, "Hermione [a bookish, know-it-all Harry Potter character] is loosely based on me. She's a caricature of me when I was eleven, which I'm not particularly proud of." Steve Eddy, who taught Rowling English when she first arrived, remembers her as "not exceptional" but "one of a group of girls who were bright, and quite good at English." Sean Harris, her best friend in the Upper Sixth owned a turquoise Ford Anglia, which she says inspired the one in her books.
Although she writes under the pen name J.K. Rowling, pronounced like rolling, her name when her first Harry Potter book was published was simply Joanne Rowling. Anticipating that the target audience of young boys might not want to read a book written by a woman, her publishers demanded that she use two initials, rather than her full name. As she had no middle name, she chose K as the second initial of her pen name, from her paternal grandmother Kathleen Ada Bulgen Rowling. She calls herself Jo and has said, "No one ever called me 'Joanne' when I was young, unless they were angry." Following her marriage, she has sometimes used the name Joanne Murray when conducting personal business. During the Leveson Inquiry she gave evidence under the name of Joanne Kathleen Rowling. In a 2012 interview, Rowling noted that she no longer cared that people pronounced her name incorrectly.
Rowling was born to Peter James Rowling, a Rolls-Royce aircraft engineer, and Anne Rowling (née Volant), on 31 July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England, 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Bristol. Her mother Anne was half-French and half-Scottish. Her parents first met on a train departing from King's Cross Station bound for Arbroath in 1964. They married on 14 March 1965. Her mother's maternal grandfather, Dugald Campbell, was born in Lamlash on the Isle of Arran. Her mother's paternal grandfather, Louis Volant, was awarded the Croix de Guerre for exceptional bravery in defending the village of Courcelles-le-Comte during the First World War.
Rowling's sister Dianne was born at their home when Rowling was 23 months old. The family moved to the nearby village Winterbourne when Rowling was four. She attended St Michael's Primary School, a school founded by abolitionist William Wilberforce and education reformer Hannah More. Her headmaster at St Michael's, Alfred Dunn, has been suggested as the inspiration for the Harry Potter headmaster Albus Dumbledore.
As a child, Rowling often wrote fantasy stories, which she would usually then read to her sister. She recalls that: "I can still remember me telling her a story in which she fell down a rabbit hole and was fed strawberries by the rabbit family inside it. Certainly the first story I ever wrote down (when I was five or six) was about a rabbit called Rabbit. He got the measles and was visited by his friends, including a giant bee called Miss Bee." At the age of nine, Rowling moved to Church Cottage in the Gloucestershire village of Tutshill, close to Chepstow, Wales. When she was a young teenager, her great aunt, who Rowling said "taught classics and approved of a thirst for knowledge, even of a questionable kind," gave her a very old copy of Jessica Mitford's autobiography, Hons and Rebels. Mitford became Rowling's heroine, and Rowling subsequently read all of her books.
Rowling has said of her teenage years, in an interview with The New Yorker, "I wasn’t particularly happy. I think it’s a dreadful time of life." She had a difficult homelife; her mother was ill and she had a difficult relationship with her father (she is no longer on speaking terms with him). She attended secondary school at Wyedean School and College, where her mother had worked as a technician in the science department. Rowling said of her adolescence, "Hermione [a bookish, know-it-all Harry Potter character] is loosely based on me. She's a caricature of me when I was eleven, which I'm not particularly proud of." Steve Eddy, who taught Rowling English when she first arrived, remembers her as "not exceptional" but "one of a group of girls who were bright, and quite good at English." Sean Harris, her best friend in the Upper Sixth owned a turquoise Ford Anglia, which she says inspired the one in her books.
Jim Kay (Illustrator)
I read Harry Potter back in 2001 and I need to pick the series back up! I stopped in the middle of book 4 and don't know how it ends.
ReplyDeleteIt really is an amazingly fantastic series I hope you do get to finish reading The Harry Potter series Nikki. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog my friend.
DeleteGreat review, I won the book but I've never read it. In fact I've just bought the illustrated Goblet of Fire this week to go with all my others. They just look pretty on my shelf.
ReplyDeletethank you and there are very gorgeous books to have on your shelf. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog my friend.
DeleteI LOVE the illustrated books, I can't wait to have them all and re-read the series.
ReplyDeleteThere are most definitely gorgeous books. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog my friend.
DeleteYasssss the illustrated editions are SO BEAUTIFUL. I have all of the released ones and even though I know it will take years for them to all be done, I cant wait to accumulate the entire illustrated collection!
ReplyDeleteYes all the illustrated Harry Potter books are absolutely gorgeous! Thank you so much for stopping by my blog my friend.
DeleteThis series really is magical - on so many levels!
ReplyDeleteYes I totally agree with You DJ I just love this series so much. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog my friend.
DeleteIt is terrific you were able to get to this again.
ReplyDeleteThank you it was such a fun and nostalgic book to re-read again. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog my friend.
DeleteThe illustrated editions are so pretty! I can’t afford to own them, but I look at them every time I go to the bookstore. My library doesn't have them. :(
ReplyDeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
I can't afford to buy them either that's why I check them out from my library, what a bummer that your library don't have them. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog my friend.
DeleteI need to read this one soon!! <3
ReplyDelete