Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

"If you are looking for a gift for a Harry Potter fan who already identifies with one of the four houses at Hogwarts but who doesn’t yet have the books, the house edition would be perfect. These books are sparsely illustrated and may therefore seem a surprising pick, but they are thoughtfully designed volumes in either hardcover or paperback. They are printed in the various house colours and black. Levi Pinfold has designed intricate house crests inspired by medieval heraldry, using very fine line drawing and a little ink. For a special gift you might go for a box set, in red for Gryffindor , blue for Ravenclaw , green for Slytherin or yellow for Hufflepuff . Pay attention if you are buying the box set online as some sets don’t include all seven books. In the USA, Scholastic published a 15th anniversary box set with cover art by Kazu Kibuishi, retaining Mary GrandPré’s iconic chapter illustrations. The style is quite epic and if you like to have beautiful book spines that form a picture when lined up it is an excellent choice. Kibuishi wrote about this project: “As an author myself, I tried to answer the question, ‘If I were the author of the books—and they were like my own children—how would I want them to be seen years from now?’ When illustrating the covers, I tried to think of classic perennial paperback editions of famous novels and how those illustrations tend to feel. In a way, the project became a tribute to both Harry Potter and the literary classics.” But buyers beware: reviews suggest some sets sold online are pirated low quality editions. Alternatively, editions with Mary GrandPré’s covers are widely available individually or as a box set . Juniper Books has designed a variety of high-end ornamental dust jackets to be used with the Scholastic hardcover books. They also provide a cardboard box shaped as a travelling trunk. (It is possible to buy the books with the special dust jackets, or just the covers without the books.) In the UK there are simple paperback volumes published by Bloomsbury with cover art by Jonny Duddle; they are available as the Children’s Complete Collection box set. There is also a box set marketed specifically for adults with cover art by woodcut artist Andrew Davidson."