Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First and foremost, the book isn’t very pretty. It has no dust jacket, and all the advertisements, logos, price and barcode are just pasted on the back. The book is small, and so doesn’t fit on the shelf well with the other Jim Kay illustrated editions. Now regarding the illustrations, they are all recycled from the previous editions. I expected new, original artwork. But this book doesn’t even have that. And even the artwork it does have is sparse. Opening up to the page with today’s date, it has five days on it, each with a very small amount of text, and no artwork, other than some keys in the margins. I didn’t read the whole book (I do plan on reading it a day- or at least a week- at a time), but a quick flip through looks like that’s more the rule than the exception. I don’t know who this product is for. Did you love the previous Kay editions? This doesn’t have anything new for you. Are you a casual fan? Some of the quotes provided without enough context might be too vague to appreciate. Are you a completionist who must have every book? As long as it doesn’t bother you that there are only illustrations up through Goblet, you might like this. Ultimately, this will probably make a very good Christmas gift for a big Harry Potter fan who doesn’t yet have the Kay illustrated editions, but I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone else. And to be honest, just get that friend the illustrated Sorcerer’s Stone.