THE OPEN BOOK continued
Harry Potter Illustrated
Editions by J.K. Rowling
(illustrations by Jim Kay and Olivia Lomenech Gill)
Since 2015 / FantasyReview by Shannon Carey
I was born in the late 1980s, which makes
me a member of a generation who grew up
with Harry Potter. This series, whether we are
speaking about the books or the films, is a huge
piece of the collective culture of people now in
their late 20s and early 30s. While there are many
millions of people both younger and older than
that age group who love Harry Potter, ours is the
generation who literally grew up right alongside
Harry and his friends. I was ten years old when
the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s
Stone, was released in America in 1998, and 23
when the final film graced movie theaters in the
summer of 2011. In many ways, Harry Potter
was my childhood.
Setting aside all the
fame and popularity and
controversy and theme
parks, J.K. Rowling’s story
about a young boy who
finds out that he is in fact
a wizard is quite simple at
the core. Harry Potter is
a neglected boy who has
never known love in the
home of his aunt and uncle
following the deaths of his
parents. Like so many literary heroes before
him, from Oliver Twist to Roald Dahl’s Matilda,
Harry is just an ordinary boy who is pulled from
terrible circumstances to face the extraordinary.
He finds out that he is not only a wizard, but
that he gets to escape his abusive relatives
and attend the fabulous Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry where he will learn
not just spells and potions, but about the power
of love and friendship. The books may seem
like they are about magic, but that’s really just
window-dressing for a deeply felt story about
personal identity, the families we can make with
our friends and loved ones and the importance
of choosing a path of strength, bravery and
goodness in life.
I probably don’t have anything particularly
new to say about this series. People have written
doctoral theses about J.K. Rowling’s world of
incredible depth and imagination. Chances
are, you may have already read the series or
you know someone who has. I instead wish to
highlight a new way of experiencing the story
for both veterans and newcomers. Since 2015,
Scholastic has been publishing illustrated
editions of the Harry Potter series, with the
first three books in the series released so far.
These are beautiful hardcover editions, the
size of a coffee table book, filled with full color
illustrations created by Jim Kay. Scholastic has
also published an illustrated edition of the
companion encyclopedia of magical creatures
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, with
illustrations by Olivia Lomenech Gill.
I highly recommend these editions for
anyone looking for a new way to experience the
series or for young readers who may struggle with
nothing but prose and would like more visual
stimulation while they read. The complete text
of each novel is included (in the original British
editions, which means that sneakers are called
trainers and sweaters are called jumpers—a
great lesson in British lexicon) along with bright
and expressive paintings on nearly every page
that bring the characters and magical locations
of the Wizarding World to life. Rowling’s writing
has always been highly visual in nature, and
the films did more to create a visual look for
this universe, but Kay’s illustrations have an
endearingly classical or old-fashioned look to
them. These pictures could just as easily have
been created in the 1950s. They are timeless and
deeply English, bringing to mind the works of
people like Beatrix Potter.
I have read the complete series many times
through but reading the first book with Kay’s
illustrations was, if you’ll pardon the cliché,
like reading it for the very first time. I loved to
see Kay’s interpretations of Professor Snape’s
swishing black cloak or the winding, crowded
street of Diagon Alley. The characters look both
realistic and somewhat heightened in terms of
emotional expression. I look forward to seeing
THE OPEN BOOK con't. next column THE OPEN BOOK con't. next column
THE OPEN BOOK continued
Shannon DeRespino lives in Sanford
with her husband and their two black
cats, Cam and Raven. She holds a B.A. in
English from Wake Forest University and
an M.A. in English & Creative Writing from
Southern New Hampshire University. She
has been contributing book reviews to the
Pinehurst Gazette, Inc. since 2012.
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how the project continues as they work on
books four through seven which are not only
significantly longer than the first three volumes,
but significantly darker as well.
For an animal lover such as myself, the
illustrated edition of Fantastic Beasts is a
real delight. It takes the reader deep into J.K.
Rowling’s imagination to see full color versions
of dozens of magical creatures both well-known
in fantasy lore (such as dragons, who get huge
fold-out sections to showcase their size and
wingpsan) and entirely from Rowling’s brain
(such as the endearing niffler, a cuddly creature
attracted to shiny objects or the terrifying and
carnivorous lethifold).
Whether you grew up with Harry Potter
as I did or you have never before taken the
Hogwarts Express steam engine to Hogwarts,
these illustrated editions are a beautiful edition
to any book collection and a lovely tribute to this
wonderful and timeless series.
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No. 130 The Pinehurst Gazette, Inc. p.31
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