Harry Potter Books 1-7 Special Edition Boxed Set

For my reviews of the individual books, check out Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1) , Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2) , Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban , Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire , Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix , Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) , and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows . Happy reading. While I got into this book series a bit late in the game (I wasn't even aware of its existence until after the release of the fourth book...shame on me) I quickly caught up and I've been hooked ever since. I don't think any book series has been this solid from beginning to end. J. K. Rowling spent an extraordinary amount of time even just developing the setting and plot and it shows. The world us Muggles aren't aware of isn't just squeezed into this little space where there happens to be room for it. No, its woven right into our own world so seamlessly that we'd never notice where one world ends and the other begins...it all works flawlessly. The characters are all great except one (check out my above-mentioned reviews to see who.) They are funny, brave, smart, wonderfully annoying, perfectly psychopathic, and so much more. Everyone has their own specific favorites and that's just fine...there are so many to choose from. My favorite throughout this series is absolutely Hermione Granger. She is smart but doesn't always have all the answers. She's resourceful but doesn't always have exactly what is needed. She's friendly but has her limits. She's tough but can get scared. In my opinion, she is the most flushed-out and most interesting character in these books. I have a whole pool of characters who make second place on the list after Hermione, including Sirius Black, Albus Dumbledore, Mad-Eye Moody, Remus Lupin, Ron Weasley and pretty much his entire family, and more. Lord Voldemort also makes this list as he is one of the creepiest, evil, and finest villains in literary fiction that I've seen far and wide. Harry Potter does make that list, but it's a close call. He's interesting because of his background and the role he plays, but as for personality and similar qualities, he's pretty bland. I wasn't always wondering how'd he get out of some mess he was in...I was wondering what twists and turns would come next in the story. I didn't want Harry to die, but there were characters who I'd have probably fought for more vigorously. Ultimately, he was a decent protagonist throughout these seven books, but I feel he could have been more. In the United States, these audio books are read by Jim Dale, who does an amazing job. While some of the many different voices he does do indicate that he's behind all of them, so many more don't. Like J. K. Rowling, Jim Dale is able to take us into this world and make us truly believe. Things come alive and magic is real when Mr. Dale begins narrating. A job well done! I will depart from my normal methodology for reviews on Amazon and comment on the price for the whole series of audio books. It's high, no doubt about that. But, when you break it down, it comes out to about $40, which is the average price for the individual audio books on Amazon. The question remaining is simply whether to buy this set all at once or buy the individual books over time? Either way, it's worth it. J. K. Rowling gave us an amazing series of books. Jim Dale brought that series to life on these audio books. Pick them up and follow Harry across this seven-year saga. While my opinion about the epilogue from Deathly Hallows remains as I've described in my review for that book, I will definitely listen to these great books over and over again. These are so much more than just kids' books. Enjoy. P.S.: So, which Hogwarts House would you be sorted into? My Order of Preference: 1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 3. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince 4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 5. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 6. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 7. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Please keep your hate mail to a minimum. Thanks.

Note: This is a review of the set of paperback editions with illustrations by Kazu Kibuishi, not of Harry Potter itself. It goes without saying that I am a big fan of the series! I have all the hardbacks of the books, bought as they came out, but when I saw this set I knew I'd end up ordering it. And ultimately, I'm glad I did - it's worth it. First, a brief word - if you're buying these for collector's purposes, you may want to order offline. I purchased mine straight from Amazon and still have some bent and beaten corners. The illustrations are wonderfully done, taking inspiration from the books rather than just from the movies. The classic Mary GrandPre drawings are still present for the individual chapter images, but Kibuishi's art is on every other surface - the back and front cover of each book show memorable scenes (my favorite being the back of OotP - Harry and friends in front of the deserted doors of the Department of Mysteries, eerily lit). Then, of course, there is the image of Hogwarts spanning the spines of the books. The box itself has more illustration on all three sides, and peering at it, one can really see the care the artist held for these books. The trio, Dumbledore, Hagrid, and the Hogwarts Express are instantly recognizable figures, but in these scenes from Hogsmeade you can also spy a little Malfoy and cronies, Luna being, well, Luna, the storefront of Zonko's Joke Shop, and students from various houses (and yes, the Ravenclaw scarves are blue and bronze). Even the very top of the box isn't left plain, although there aren't any drawings on it. I think these illustrations will come to be just as treasured as GrandPre's. The quality of the set is, for the most part, good. The covers of the books are rather unique, coated in some velvety, matte material with a nice drag to it that feels durable. The embossed 'Harry Potter' on each book is shiny and stands out well. (I confess to just 'petting' the books at times.) The box is sturdy cardboard, not easily bent. However, there are two problems I have with the production. One, the paper is quite thin, and seems like it might be prone to warping, which is a shame. It's not thin enough to see other pages through, but it's just not sturdy, and feels even thinner than the generic paper I'd use in a home printer. To be honest, it reminds me of what you'd find in a mass market paperback, just less grainy and whiter. Second, getting the books in and out of the box can be a chore! I'd recommend storing them out of the box if you plan on picking them up and putting them back frequently. It's just a tad too small, and this, combined with the high friction from the cover material, means the books need to be forced and finagled in, which would not be kind to the corners over time. (A tip - slip them all in part of the way, then turn the box and let gravity take care of the rest all at once, rather than trying to put the last one in by itself.) I don't know why they made the box so small - when all the books are in, the sides bow out. It's just not practical. Overall, if you're a fan of the series and would like a beautiful set, I'd recommend picking this one up - at Amazon's pricing, it's a pretty good deal; less than $10 a book. Just be aware that the paper quality is lacking and that the box, while lovely, is not an ideal storage solution.

I bought 3 of these US hardback box sets because the books are quite lovely and printed on high quality paper. The heavy cardboard 'trunk' looks nice and is OK for storage only; the books are heavy and it is not built strongly enough to support carrying them around much, as a wooden or metal trunk would be. This set makes an impressive gift that anyone can appreciate because the books are of such high quality make and content. For those who are interested in buying or knowing about other available versions and formats of HP, here are my comments on the British books, ebooks and audio books that I also own: I bought the UK Bloomsbury Children's Edition hardbacks but unfortunately their paper quality is not the greatest. For the most part, the differences between the US and UK books are not significant. I simply wanted to have the original British versions because I really love these amazing stories. The Bloomsbury books can be ordered from Amazon UK or Amazon Canada. Ordering the ebooks from the Pottermore web site was easy and the download to my Amazon Kindle library went quite smoothly. Pottermore also holds the books for you and enables buyers to download them to a maximum of 8 devices without having to repurchase them. All of the US and UK ebooks are nicely done. I also have the Bloomsbury version audio book CDs narrated by Stephen Fry and the US set narrated by Jim Dale. The major difference between these is that Jim Dale 'acts' the different characters with significant voice changes for each character, while Stephen Fry narrates expressively more than performs. Each is nicely done and I enjoyed listening to both complete sets, but if I had to pick a favorite I'd choose Stephen Fry; I liked his style and his vocalizations beautifully express the meaning and mood setting of each passage. Some of Jim Dale's female voices are annoying to listen to and he inaccurately gives Bellatrix a French accent when she is actually British, and also inaccurately gives a French pronounciation to words like 'Voldemort' or 'beazor' instead of pronouncing these in their proper British context. Both sets of audio books are also available in MP3 format and can be purchased on the Pottermore web site. As you may gather from my purchasing all of these versions, I think the Harry Potter series is extraordinary and J. K. Rowling is a truly gifted author who has given us this treasure. For those of you who have read through the entire series at least once and have had time to think about the details and wonder if/where some corrections and revisions are needed, you might like to read my review of the kindle book DESTINY UNFULFILLED by Jim Adam. I hope you will find worthwhile insights and suggestions there that you can enjoy and think about: Destiny Unfulfilled: A Critique of the Harry Potter Series

It was perfect. The books were in great shape and color

These are great. Good price for the set.

This is the full set of the original Harry Potter novels in a paperback version. It is much more than just a mass-market paperback, however. The books are just a bit smaller in size than the hardcover versions, and they have the same kind of quality illustrations and look great. They also come in a collector box that you can either store them in on a shelf, or the box can be displayed separately if you are one of those who goes all in decking out a bookshelf. Harry Potter is, of course, the massive series that consisted of these 7 books, which were ultimately adapted into 8 movies, and then spun off the Fantastic Beasts franchise that is currently still going strong. The books are set in the 1990s at a time when a ten-year-old Harry learns that he is a wizard, and starts attending school at Hogwarts school for witchcraft and wizardry. The theme throughout the series of books is the looming threat of the dark wizard Voldemort who tried and failed to kill Harry as an infant. The author JK Rowling, wrote the books with the intention that kids about Harry's age could start reading them and then age with the characters in the books. So, they do get progressively darker and more "adult" as the series goes on. The first couple of books are easily appropriate for 10-11 year-olds, but the later books are probably more appropriate for those in the 13-15-year-old (on up) age range. Even though they are technically kids' books, they can easily be enjoyed by adults. The books also get longer as the series goes on, so if you have seen the movies, there is a lot that happens in the books, especially books 3-6 that get cut out of the movies. I do think, on the whole, the books are better than the movies, but I think there are some things that the movies tweaked from the books that worked better. Overall, it is a great book series. The story is unique in that, as opposed to a lot of other books in the sci-fi/fantasy genre that set their stories on made-up worlds that have little in common with our reality, it sets the world of magic in the "real" world in contemporary times, just making it clear that people without the magical ability (called muggles) are largely unaware of the existence of magic. If you are one of the few who have yet to read the books, I highly recommend them.

A few people on here have made remarks about the packaging and the shipping, good and bad. I'd like to give a little more depth on both of these topics. First, the shipping. Some have complained about their set being damaged (rips, bent corners, etc). I purchased mine directly from Amazon and it was shipped by FedEx. I was worried because of the reviews that it'd be damaged, but those fears were soon extinguished. The box the set was shipped in contained some of those plastic bags full of air for padding, and sure enough, when I took the set out, it was 100% spotless, perfectly new. I'm hoping this will continue to be the case for others, because it really is frustrating to open a new item and find it damaged by poor padding or incompetent boxing. Now, the actual packaging of the set. If you've read any other reviews for it, you've certainly been made aware of the gloriously beautiful artwork done by graphic novelist Kazu Kibuishi. And I agree completely with them; the artwork is one of the main reasons to own this set, even if you already own the books. Having read Mr. Kibuishi's Amulet series and Copper comics, I can safely say that this is the best artwork he's created. It's remarkably, wonderfully detailed, and you will no doubt be compelled to admire every subtle inclusion of characters and accurate environmental depictions. It's lush, perfectly colored and toned, obviously passionate work. I'm so glad they got him, of all people, to do this. Concerning the physical descriptions of this set besides the artwork, I've been surprised at remarks of the paper being of cheap quality, though the covers have been lauded for their "softness." The covers are indeed soft and have a milky texture to them. Very high quality stuff. The artwork is crystal clear on them and the box. But the paper is NOT cheap; it is of a rich material, certainly not the "mass market paperback" quality that another viewer opined. It's very good, especially for paperbacks such as these. Scholastic has impressed me. The box has also been an issue, with many saying it's too small. It IS a bit of a tight fit, I'll admit, but some other reviewer said it took them 30 minutes to get a book back in. They must have been being extraordinarily meticulous with it, because that is not the case, I assure you. The box was thicker than I imagined, sturdier, and that's always good. Even if you end of not using it for storage, you definitely will not want to throw it out. There's one more thing concerning the packaging that I'm surprised people haven't spoken much about: the binding. These are paperbacks, so if durability is your utmost concern, the original hardcover set is still the way to go. But these Scholastic paperbacks are of better binding quality than the Arthur A. Levine published ones, a few of which I used to have. Those creased very easily, their bindings aren't durable at all; they operate mostly as reading copies. This set, on the other hand, has much more durable bindings. Yes, it's still Scholastic, so they aren't as durable as a hardback or an expensive paperback, but they are glued quite well, and won't crease unless you crank back on them. This is good, because it would truly be a shame if the image the lined-up spines create were tarnished in any way. I hope this has been helpful to any potential buyers. This series is exemplary reading; consider it a must-own.

I was first introduced to Harry Potter when I purchased the first three books in the series from a school Scholastic order form that my daughter had brought home. The two-sentence blurb about the three books sounded mildly interesting, and I purchased the books with the intention of giving them to my daughter for Christmas. When they arrived, I tossed them in a closet where I promptly forgot about them. However, one Sunday afternoon I had finished my last library book and if you're an avid reader, you know what a panic-inducing moment this can be. Nothing to read, and the library is closed! After rummaging through the bookshelves and finding nothing that caught my interest, I stumbled across the three Harry Potter books and decided to give them a try. With the first couple of pages, I was sucked in to the world that JK Rowling had created. There really aren't that many stories out there that I have found to be so engrossing. As we follow Harry on his epic path to defeat the evil Lord Voldemort, so many good life lessons are learned by the characters of the story. Good doesn't always overcome evil, bad things can happen to good people, and sometimes the bully escapes punishment. Harry learns that sometimes sacrifices have to be made, up to and including the ultimate sacrifice. I admit I was one of those crazy people who would be at the nearest mall, waiting for midnight to pick up the next book as soon as it was released. I usually bought 4 copies as well, so nobody in the house had to wait a day or two to read it! The Harry Potter series also introduced my children to the joys of reading. Neither one read for pleasure until they were old enough to comprehend this reading level and I pushed them to try reading this series. They both enjoyed the movies tremendously, and after explaining that they were missing so much by not reading the full story, they both eventually read the books. My daughter is in college and my son in high school, and they have both become avid readers after realizing that a book has so much more to offer than a movie. I have purchased the entire series of 7 books in hardback and paperback and have more than one full set. These books have become well-loved and we all return to the books again and again. I find that I always go back and re-read the series whenever one of the movies has been released, and so do both of my children. The prose of the stories reminds me a bit of Roald Dahl (James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), and there are some turns of phrase that are definitely British. However, the books are very easy reads. If you're at all emotional, have tissues ready when you read books 4, 5, 6, and 7! Even if you've not ever been insterested in reading the fantasy genre, the Harry Potter series is one to try. At times I find myself wishing for a magic wand and fantasizing about moving to England...