COLUMN: New Harry Potter illustrations should excite series’ fans

With Halloween approaching, Harry Potter, a series that caused an entire generation to fall in love with magic and with reading, has been on my mind. For all lovers of the world author J. K. Rowling created, myself included, this month is bringing something new to look forward to — the release of the new, illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

This book has been receiving a lot of positive attention, and I for one have been hearing about it online and from friends every day for the last few weeks. To give a little background, this edition was commissioned by Bloomsbury, the original publisher of the Harry Potter series. Famed illustrator and winner of the 2012 Kate Greenaway Medal Jim Kay was asked to take on the gargantuan project of illustrating not one, but all seven of the Harry Potter books. After two years of work, we can finally see the first installment this month.

Using the films and Rowling’s vivid description of an imaginary world as guidance, Kay has created a world so beautiful that readers feel as though they could thrust their hand into the pages and grasp at it. I must admit, I was skeptical when I first heard about this most recent reimagining of a series so near and dear to my heart. I grew up reading the books before the movies were released, meaning that the mental image I created of Harry’s world was something very important to me. I didn’t want a barrage of new images to obstruct my own, but I was pleasantly surprised. The pictures are vibrantly colorful and incredibly detailed, yet somehow don’t seem intrusive. They are, in all honesty, truly gorgeous pictures that are works of art on their own. Kay doesn’t simplify the images as many children’s illustrators do. He captures the magic, intricacy and excitement of one of the most beloved children’s books of all time.

Still, I do have some qualms with this illustrated idea. Adding pictures to a book removes the most powerful aspects of the written word: its ability to produce images in the mind, to spark the imagination and to create new worlds that belong to the reader alone. Suddenly, with this edition of the book, the readers share Hogwarts, Diagon Alley and the faces of their favorite characters with millions of other readers. I understand that this illustrated version was published, on the whole, for the most devoted fans of the series. This is probably why a more expensive and extensive deluxe edition is also available. New readers coming to the series will most likely still read the unillustrated version, but the publication of this new version runs the risk that some people may enter the world, not just through Rowling’s eyes, but also through Kay’s. I feel that this will only create another barrier between the reader and the story, and the most powerful stories are those in which the reader feels the closest to the characters and the action.

Another problem that I have with this new edition is that it might be centered on money. Just as the excitement around the books, the films and Pottermore starts to die down, Rowling and Bloomsbury release a pricey hardcover copy of the first book in the series, with the promise of more to come and the knowledge that the series has a devoted enough fan base that will happily fork over cash for yet another Harry Potter memento. Of course, this may be completely untrue, but with a Harry Potter play and a spin-off movie in the works, it seems to me that the powers that be are determined to squeeze every last drop of revenue from the series until it is truly bone dry.

That being said, I do think the project is worthwhile and exciting in many ways. I love Kay’s illustrations and cannot imagine anyone doing a better job. There is evidently so much love, patience and research put into every image that any true fan of the series will recognize one of their own in Hagrid’s ramshackle hut and Harry’s crowded cupboard under the stairs. At the end of the day, I don’t know whether this version of the series is going to be revolutionary, but as a true Harry Potter fan, I’m never going to argue with a new way to experience a book that defined my childhood and a generation.

Kirsten Greenwood is a sophomore majoring in English. Her column, “By the Book,”
runs every Friday.