The last few Harry Potter companion books that I read were sadly underwhelming, but this one won me back into the fold! Designed by the Minalima team (who are also responsible for all of the graphic design for the film series itself), this book is a literal playground that allows readers to fully immerse themselves back into the visual imagery of the films and be inspired all over again by the story’s whimsy. Packed with stills from the films, behind the scenes imagery, and design artwork, I doubt that it would be possible to pack anymore information in - and yet, the writing team also held their own. Interspersed into the well-placed layouts are text panels that (for once) stay neatly contained alongside their visuals, and give us just the right balance of narration to retell the story. Much of the text is also woven with memories and personal stories from the actors and design team, so we get a real glimpse behind the scenes into the personalities of the Harry Potter world. Blended so artfully together, the book feels like a unique family scrapbook and really stands out amongst the plethora of other Potter publications that have been released over the years. Sure, we don’t get the depth of some of the speciality books (the art and design tomes are some of my favourites), but this book played the magical tone so perfectly that I am hard-pressed to think of how it could actually be improved. ( )

Packed to the brim with trivia and behind the scenes bits from each of the eight Harry Potter movies. The book also includes recreated piece of memorabilia, like the marauder's map, a brochure from the Weasley's joke shop, and a letter from Hogwarts. I loved learning more about how each of the different directors approached the story. ( )

[Friday, ‎June ‎29, ‎2012] Yesterday I went book shopping and I found this book, I have seen it before but I couldn't afford to buy it, now that I could, I just had to buy it... What a wonderful book for every "Harry Potter" fan, after flipping through it and reading and remembering the movies and books and details I felt like re-watching the series again... I LOVED finding the letter, the party invitation and the amazing map in detail... I expected to find a wand as a bookmark at the end LOL, but nope, I didn't. Amazing edition to my collection. ( )

A scrapbook-like book about the making of the Harry Potter films. This is very attractive graphically and includes a lot of loose extras, like booklets, stickers, a mini-version of the Marauder's Map, and Harry's acceptance letter to Hogwarts, etc. It has (very) short anecdotes from the actors, directors, and other production staff, as well as some details about the process of producing the different movies. It is very cursory, though, so if you are a die-hard HP-fan, I would suggest getting Harry Potter Page to Screen instead, since that one is much more detailed than this one. This is still a very pretty book since the emphasis seems to be on the graphic design and the extras, so it'll stay in my bookshelf even if I won't be reading it cover-to-cover again. ( )

Review from library copy.

Fun to look through, but probably not a great pick for cirulating collection. ( )