Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, 10th Anniversary Edition

In today's economy, customers buying books need to know exactly what they're buying. In this case, what your thirty bucks buys is -- apart from the previously published text (the novel itself) and the previously published art (interior art) -- is, essentially, a new cover by longtime Harry Potter cover artist Mary GrandPre, and a black-and-white illustration by Rowling (quite the cartoonist!), which comprises the "bonus" material Scholastic has been touting but keeping under wraps.The wraps are off and, while the illustration is nice, Scholastic would be better off issuing either an illustration edition with more art (which, by the way, exists), or taking the momentous occasion of the 10th anniversary to celebrate it in a significant fashion: Rowling, why wasn't there an original interview in which you looked back at the ten years of Harry Potter in the media? Why wasn't there a long essay by a respected literary critic looking at the Harry Potter phenomenon? Why wasn't there MORE text?If this was simply a reprint edition, the omission of new text would be understandable. But when you're celebrating ten years of Harry Potter in print, how, exactly, does a new cover, a previously published (to the best of my knowledge) illustration for the colored endpapers, and a black-and-white illustration by Rowling "celebrate" the book's publication?As there is no historical retrospective here, I'd have to say that Scholastic missed the boat: This edition could have been so much more, but it suffers (ironically) from a failure of imagination.I have rated it five stars because the first novel is a literary classic in the children's field. The publisher, however, needs to think about how to ADD VALUE to the existing edition when touting its "anniversary" status, esp. if they intend on reissuing matching volumes in the future. Otherwise, it comes off as being just another edition to get the fans' hard-earned money, instead of offering something new, different, and significantly improved.

Purchased for my daughter-in-law as a gift. Was so happy to find this hard to find 10th Anniversary book for her. Excellent condition!

For my son

I hesitated about buying this copy of this book seeing as I already have a couple copies of it here. I'm very glad I did. I loved the little hand-drawn picture of Snape by JKR and the full-page color picture of the adventure across the Black Lake. Those features aside, I reread the story and forgot just how magical and wonderful it is. In comparison to the later books, it is a quick read and I forgot how much I love it.

We all know and love this story. In this special anniversary addition, the publishers have included a beautiful painting of Hagrid and the First Years crossing the lake by Mary GrandPre as well as a hand drawn sketch of Snape by J.K. Rowling herself. The dust cover art is of Harry looking into the Mirror of Erised (my favorite chapter). The book itself is covered in Gryffindor house colors -- scarlet with gold stars all over it. I'm looking forward to collecting all seven anniversary editions for my home library.

It's great to have this fine quality volume in my collection. I will buy every forthcoming "Anniversary" edition of the Potter series. With the J.K. Rowling's own sketch of Snape included here, I wonder why she did not illustrate all of her books. Her sketch of Snape is exactly how I imagined him and has much more gravitas and interest than the rather too whimsical drawings of her illustrator.

came super fast and in great condition! happy i was able to find this at such a great price😌

Belatedly I found out that this is not worth buying. Yes, I bought the book because I thought that being touted as the 10th Anniversary Edition, it would be SPECIAL. Like there would be at least a Reflection page by Scholastic or JKR since the book (and the obscure author) has been a huge success. However, the contents are basically the same. The only additional is the sketch of Snape by JKR with a small note regarding the sketch plus the colored frontis of Hagrid on the boat...yes, the dust jacket has a new art and the boards are red with golden stars...but that's about it.If you collect the books though, as in because you want every copy of the HP book series, then what I just said won't matter. But if you're buying it because you think it offers something new, then I would say it is not worth it.