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Seven volume set in great condition. Minimal wear to covers and slipcase. No writing or highlighting. Seven volume set in great condition. Minimal wear to covers and slipcase. No writing or highlighting. See less
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Harry Potter Paperback Box Set (Books 1-7) Paperback – Box set, July 1, 2009

4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 63,918 ratings

on 1 when you buy 2 Shop items
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Now for the first time ever, J.K. Rowling’s seven bestselling Harry Potter books are available in a stunning paperback boxed set! The Harry Potter series has been hailed as “one for the ages” by Stephen King and “a spellbinding saga’ by USA Today. And most recently, The New York Times called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows the “fastest selling book in history.” This is the ultimate Harry Potter collection for Harry Potter fans of all ages!
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

J.K. Rowling is the author of the enduringly popular Harry Potter books. After the idea for Harry Potter came to her on a delayed train journey in 1990, she plotted out and started writing the series of seven books and the first was published as Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in the UK in 1997. The series took another ten years to complete, concluding in 2007 with the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

To accompany the series, J.K. Rowling wrote three short companion volumes for charity, Quidditch Through the Agesand Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, in aid of Comic Relief and Lumos, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard, in aid of Lumos. She also collaborated on the writing of a stage play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which was published as a script book.

Her other books for children include the fairy tale The Ickabog and The Christmas Pig, which were published in 2020 and 2021 respectively and have also been bestsellers. She is also the author of books for adults, including a bestselling crime fiction series.

J.K. Rowling has received many awards and honors for her writing. She also supports a number of causes through her charitable trust Volant and is the founder of the children’s charity Lumos.

To find out more about J.K. Rowling visit jkrowlingstories.com.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scholastic Inc.; Kindle edition (July 1, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0545162076
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0545162074
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 9+ years, from customers
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 4 - 6
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 10.6 x 8.5 x 5.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 63,918 ratings

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4.9 out of 5 stars
63,918 global ratings

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Customers find the boxed set to be a good value and wise investment. They describe it as an impressive gift that comes in a nice box that keeps the books organized and safe.

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1,187 customers mention "Value for money"1,089 positive98 negative

Customers find the book a wise investment and appreciate its value. They are happy with the price and packaging of the boxed set.

"It was a great price for all of the books" Read more

"If you like Harry Potter and you want to own the books this is a great price and will last!..." Read more

"Looks beautiful, feels great, the price is very affordable." Read more

"It’s exactly what I was expecting. Love the artwork and the casing. Great price for all seven too. So glad I got it." Read more

676 customers mention "Gift value"672 positive4 negative

Customers appreciate the gift value of the book set. They find it well-packaged, with simple artwork and photos. The box helps keep the books organized and safe. Many consider it a great gift for young readers starting their Harry Potter journey.

"Snagged this box set and I’m so glad I did! The packaging is beautiful and looks great on my bookshelf...." Read more

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An Important Part of My Childhood, Which I Still Love Over 15 Years Later
5 out of 5 stars
An Important Part of My Childhood, Which I Still Love Over 15 Years Later
I've been a fan of Harry Potter since about the grade school, back when the only books that had been published yet were the first three, when Potter's popularity was still on the rise, when Christian fundamentalists were still catching on to the horrifying idea that a "witchcraft" story was gaining popularity with children, and grade-school teachers were similarly catching on to Harry Potter being a pretty effective tool for getting kids to develop a liking for books. Indeed, that was how I discovered them: my English teacher somewhere in the 6th-to-8th-grade portion of schooling (where my Catholic school shifted to a high-school-like classroom and teacher shuffle to prepare students for the routines public school would involve) introduced me and several other students who were showing less interest and enthusiasm in the class to the Harry Potter novels, actually lending us her own copies of the first three books to get us reading. By the time the much thicker fourth volume, Goblet of Fire, came out, I was so in love in the series that its intimidating size was far more appealing to me than intimidating, like a larger bowl of rocky road ice cream might look appealing.In the decade-and-a-half since, I've never let go of my love of Harry Potter, even if I have gone long stretches of time without keeping an active eye on the franchise. The recent revival of widespread Potter interest of the appealing-but-flawed sequel stage play ("Harry Potter and the Cursed Child") and an arguably-more-interesting-and consistently-engrossing prequel-sidestory-movie ("Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them") has prompted me to revisit the book series yet again, as well as replace my old worn-down hardcover copies with both the paperback box set and the eBook downloads from Pottermore's e-shop — which are cross-compatible with Kindle accounts and can be transferred over as identical files to the Kindle versions, by the way, even though Amazon doesn't count those files as purchases of the Kindle eBooks, but rather as separate account-exclusive items. Having checked on Audible, this series does not seem to be compatible with Whispersync for Voice no matter where you buy the eBooks as of yet, so audiobook fans who like to read the text while listening may wish to take note of that when deciding whether to buy a physical or eBook versions (this is possibly due to revisions having been made to the text for series consistency in the time since the audiobooks were recorded).In-depth reviews of the individual books are perhaps best saved for each book's individual page on Amazon, so I will give only a broad-stroke review of the stories here — if you are considering buying the series as a complete box set, it's likely you've already read and enjoyed at least the one of the books. But for the uninitiated, Harry Potter is a series that follows a boy, Harry himself, across a seven-year series of adventures culminating in the return and subsequent war against Lord Voldemort, a terrible Dark wizard who wreaked horrors upon the magical and non-magical communities alike until his unexpected and inexplicable destruction when he killed Harry's parents and then attempted to kill Harry while he was still an infant. Harry, growing up with his non-magical ("Muggle") aunt and uncle, who cruelly neglect and emotionally abuse him, receives a letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when he turns eleven, whereupon he discovers that not only is there a burgeoning community of witches and wizards living and hiding in plain sight in a seemingly-ordinary 1990s British society, but that he is famous among the magical community. They call him the "Boy Who Lived," the cause of Voldemort's disappearance and the end of his reign of terror. But as Harry enters the magical world and begins to learn about this new side of his life and the wonders of magic, he gets drawn into a series of perilous events that lead him closer and closer to his eventual destiny with each passing book, gradually revealing more of the truth behind what happened on the night Harry's parents were murdered and what led to it, among other things.Harry Potter is a fantastic series. One might be tempted to think it's overblown or over-rated by its enthusiasts. One would, in fact, be forgiven for taking that impression almost exclusively from the movies; they're enjoyable enough in their own right, but suffer problems of less-than-amazing adaptation and fluctuations in creative vision that make the film series feel somewhat disjointed and less-thoughtful than the books they're based on, and have the added problem of the younger actors and actresses often taking a few films to develop the skills to portray their characters naturally (an occupational hazard of a fantasy epic that relies on child actors, really). The Harry Potter novels, meanwhile, provide an arguably smoother introduction and, subsequently, a more fleshed-out experience in Harry's world, with the earlier, shorter books providing a comfortable and more "episodic" early portion that's great for allowing readers to get their feet wet, becoming gradually more involved and complex until the build-up culminates with the fourth and fifth novels, where the story goes all-in on characterization and worldbuilding detail, presuming the writer to be fully invested by that point, and keeping that level of maturity and intensity right up to the ending of the final volume.It would be remiss of me to call this series perfect, don't mistake the five-star rating for that. J.K. Rowling certainly has her weaknesses as a writer, and it could be accurately said that the novels suffer from a bit of a bloating problem that surfaced around Book Five, where Rowling clearly had more power to say "no" to her editors (incidentally, this is also the point at which the American text just gives up at hiding away a lot of the Britishisms in narration and dialogue, and I will say the books are at least better for that much). This is a clear Your Mileage May Vary kind of point. I personally enjoy the tangential worldbuilding that comes out of it, and consider it worth whatever "bloat" occurs as a result. But then, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is my favorite of the seven novels, and even for some avowed fans of Harry Potter, that book was too long and spent a little too much time on certain things. There's really no way to tell whether that will be a problem for you until you get there and either like it or don't like it. But what problems the Potter novels have are, in the grand scheme, just niggles. It all comes together in a really great way and in spite of the flaws, it's a really great series of books worthy of the classification of "epic."But one thing that might surprise people unfamiliar with Potter is that this is not a fantasy action-adventure series. It's more of a mystery series coated in a gooey chocolate fantasy syrup. Harry Potter himself tends to fill the role of a combination Frodo Baggins figure and up-and-coming detective character, and the most important plot points are, regardless of who figures out or explains a given part of things, presented as mysteries. Action sequences occur and can be quite intense, particularly in later volumes, but this is not the story of a big, super-cool hero slaying dragons; it's a story of circumstance, figuring out the circumstance, and then reacting to the circumstance. Some readers seem annoyed by the fact that eleven-year-old Harry never matures in this series to a point where by the end of magical high school he's capable of going head-to-head in a duel with a Dark Lord with decades of extensive magical knowledge under his belt, but that is simply not the angle that this series goes for. My comparison of Harry to Frodo Baggins was not an idle-name-drop. Harry's role in this story is very deliberately that of the hero who stands strong against adversity but ultimately triumphs through low-key action behind the scenes of a conflict in which number other, more powerful or more experienced combatants command the bulk of the Dark Lord's attention. And, like Frodo (and his progenitor, Bilbo), sometimes Harry is helped by sheer circumstance, the timely and skillful intervention of one of his friends, or a combination of his own efforts plus those things. The series does give us a fairly clear picture of what an action-centric lead character in this universe might look like, and I think that's where a fair portion of reader disappointment with Harry's more subdued take on heroics comes from, but he is an eleven-year-old who eventually becomes a seventeen-year-old over the course of the story, contending with a villain who has fifty-plus-year lead on experience over him. I think I would have raised an eyebrow had Harry ever bested Voldemort in a straight-up magical fight.As with everything, this series is something you should read for yourself if you're unsure. There's probably a copy available at your local library if you don't live in a particularly strict area with a stick up its rear about fantasy novels with magic in them. I recommend giving them a shot, and if Book One doesn't jive with you at first, sticking with it at least until the end of Book Two. This is a series that improves as it moves forward, each book adding new layers to the existing world by pacing its narrative in the same way a child might learn more and more about the real world as he or she grows into an adult, which is a large part of Harry Potter's effectiveness as a coming-of-age story. The reader, in a figurative sense, grows with Harry, as many of the original readers grew with Harry alongside the release of each subsequent book. This is as much a narrative tool as a consequence of readers aging as they read the books, because with very rare exceptions scattered through the series, the narrative is locked firmly into whatever it is that Harry Potter himself is seeing, hearing, saying, feeling, or thinking, and the reader's understanding of events and the world around him is often limited to what he knows or notices at any given time.As for the separate editions of these books. I can't voice for the "Complete Collection" eBook specifically, since I bought the eBooks individually on Pottermore, but assuming the formatting for the Complete Collection is identical, then the digital set relevant to this review is well-put-together and smoothly formatted, just about the best way you'll ever experience Harry Potter digitally without buying the iBooks-and-iOS-exclusive Enhanced Edition eBooks available on Pottermore, which feature animated illustrations and the like. If you have an iPad or iPhone, that is the edition I recommend for digital consumption, but for standard Kindle and Android users, or people who like reading eBooks on PC, this collection and its individual-eBook versions aren't inferior to physical books in any sense other than not having a special font for chapter headings; the U.S. editions of the eBooks even contain the iconic chapter title illustrations, although not the original American cover art (the minimalist cover art of the eBooks makes for a smoother transition between colored screens and black-and-white e-readers, though).The hardcover collection is one that I can't vouch for as a set, but having owned and read through the series in hardcover in the past, what I can vouch for is that the American hardcover editions are very nice to own. The box set for Hardcover may lack the text revision of the eBooks and more recent paperback printings, however, and while the chapter artwork and font for titles is something I prefer over the U.K. editions, it should be acknowledged that the American hardcovers are of a slightly cheaper construction than the U.K. editions, although also, paradoxically, they have a higher page count due to Scholastic's formatting choices (there are fewer words per page compared to the U.K. versions, and Order of the Phoenix has the formatting oddity of being the only book in the series with narrower margins and line-spacing, due to its much higher word count). Having researched this set, it should be acknowledged that the "trunk" is made of cardboard, so don't expect, you know, an extremely durable box or anything. It's just a stylized container for a box set.As for the paperback box set, the purchase that prompted this review? It's fantastic. The American version with the characters riding a dragon, specifically: I'm seeing a lot of user pictures in this review second for completely different sets, and it seems there's a motley assortment of mixed sets in the marketplace listings, too. The box itself is quite sturdy and adorned with beautiful artwork by the cover illustrator, Mary GrandPré, depicting a scene from later in the series that puts me in the mind of the old R.A. Salvatore "Cleric Quintet" omnibus cover art (which features a similar scene by what I assume is coincidence). The paperback volumes themselves are of a nice quality that makes them both more durable and less stiff-feeling than some smaller, cheaper mass-market paperbacks, and they even feature raised lettering for the front cover titling, although the paper and print quality are noticeably lesser than the hardcover editions, feeling at a casual touch like the pages would be easier to damage both by bending and by splashing a few drops of a drink in the book's general direction, not up to the quality of some of the better-made paperback novels that I own. Even so, these are paperbacks that should be taken care of and kept for posterity rather than tossed about like a cheapy grocery store throwaway novel that you picked up on a whim during a food-shopping trip, though the thickness of books four through seven may make it difficult to avoid bending the spines.Having checked certain passages in the books, I can also confirm that the paperback boxed set, bought new, should contained the revised editions of the text, as well, for as minor as those changes are to the overall experience (again, they're really just consistency tweaks).
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  • Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2024
    Gave this to a little girl for her birthday. She was over the moon.
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  • Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2024
    Snagged this box set and I’m so glad I did! The packaging is beautiful and looks great on my bookshelf. I’ve never watched the movies nor have I read the books, so I’m excited to read! 🧙🏻
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    5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Quality - Excited to Read!
    Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2024
    Snagged this box set and I’m so glad I did! The packaging is beautiful and looks great on my bookshelf. I’ve never watched the movies nor have I read the books, so I’m excited to read! 🧙🏻
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  • Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2016
    I've been a fan of Harry Potter since about the grade school, back when the only books that had been published yet were the first three, when Potter's popularity was still on the rise, when Christian fundamentalists were still catching on to the horrifying idea that a "witchcraft" story was gaining popularity with children, and grade-school teachers were similarly catching on to Harry Potter being a pretty effective tool for getting kids to develop a liking for books. Indeed, that was how I discovered them: my English teacher somewhere in the 6th-to-8th-grade portion of schooling (where my Catholic school shifted to a high-school-like classroom and teacher shuffle to prepare students for the routines public school would involve) introduced me and several other students who were showing less interest and enthusiasm in the class to the Harry Potter novels, actually lending us her own copies of the first three books to get us reading. By the time the much thicker fourth volume, Goblet of Fire, came out, I was so in love in the series that its intimidating size was far more appealing to me than intimidating, like a larger bowl of rocky road ice cream might look appealing.

    In the decade-and-a-half since, I've never let go of my love of Harry Potter, even if I have gone long stretches of time without keeping an active eye on the franchise. The recent revival of widespread Potter interest of the appealing-but-flawed sequel stage play ("Harry Potter and the Cursed Child") and an arguably-more-interesting-and consistently-engrossing prequel-sidestory-movie ("Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them") has prompted me to revisit the book series yet again, as well as replace my old worn-down hardcover copies with both the paperback box set and the eBook downloads from Pottermore's e-shop — which are cross-compatible with Kindle accounts and can be transferred over as identical files to the Kindle versions, by the way, even though Amazon doesn't count those files as purchases of the Kindle eBooks, but rather as separate account-exclusive items. Having checked on Audible, this series does not seem to be compatible with Whispersync for Voice no matter where you buy the eBooks as of yet, so audiobook fans who like to read the text while listening may wish to take note of that when deciding whether to buy a physical or eBook versions (this is possibly due to revisions having been made to the text for series consistency in the time since the audiobooks were recorded).

    In-depth reviews of the individual books are perhaps best saved for each book's individual page on Amazon, so I will give only a broad-stroke review of the stories here — if you are considering buying the series as a complete box set, it's likely you've already read and enjoyed at least the one of the books. But for the uninitiated, Harry Potter is a series that follows a boy, Harry himself, across a seven-year series of adventures culminating in the return and subsequent war against Lord Voldemort, a terrible Dark wizard who wreaked horrors upon the magical and non-magical communities alike until his unexpected and inexplicable destruction when he killed Harry's parents and then attempted to kill Harry while he was still an infant. Harry, growing up with his non-magical ("Muggle") aunt and uncle, who cruelly neglect and emotionally abuse him, receives a letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when he turns eleven, whereupon he discovers that not only is there a burgeoning community of witches and wizards living and hiding in plain sight in a seemingly-ordinary 1990s British society, but that he is famous among the magical community. They call him the "Boy Who Lived," the cause of Voldemort's disappearance and the end of his reign of terror. But as Harry enters the magical world and begins to learn about this new side of his life and the wonders of magic, he gets drawn into a series of perilous events that lead him closer and closer to his eventual destiny with each passing book, gradually revealing more of the truth behind what happened on the night Harry's parents were murdered and what led to it, among other things.

    Harry Potter is a fantastic series. One might be tempted to think it's overblown or over-rated by its enthusiasts. One would, in fact, be forgiven for taking that impression almost exclusively from the movies; they're enjoyable enough in their own right, but suffer problems of less-than-amazing adaptation and fluctuations in creative vision that make the film series feel somewhat disjointed and less-thoughtful than the books they're based on, and have the added problem of the younger actors and actresses often taking a few films to develop the skills to portray their characters naturally (an occupational hazard of a fantasy epic that relies on child actors, really). The Harry Potter novels, meanwhile, provide an arguably smoother introduction and, subsequently, a more fleshed-out experience in Harry's world, with the earlier, shorter books providing a comfortable and more "episodic" early portion that's great for allowing readers to get their feet wet, becoming gradually more involved and complex until the build-up culminates with the fourth and fifth novels, where the story goes all-in on characterization and worldbuilding detail, presuming the writer to be fully invested by that point, and keeping that level of maturity and intensity right up to the ending of the final volume.

    It would be remiss of me to call this series perfect, don't mistake the five-star rating for that. J.K. Rowling certainly has her weaknesses as a writer, and it could be accurately said that the novels suffer from a bit of a bloating problem that surfaced around Book Five, where Rowling clearly had more power to say "no" to her editors (incidentally, this is also the point at which the American text just gives up at hiding away a lot of the Britishisms in narration and dialogue, and I will say the books are at least better for that much). This is a clear Your Mileage May Vary kind of point. I personally enjoy the tangential worldbuilding that comes out of it, and consider it worth whatever "bloat" occurs as a result. But then, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is my favorite of the seven novels, and even for some avowed fans of Harry Potter, that book was too long and spent a little too much time on certain things. There's really no way to tell whether that will be a problem for you until you get there and either like it or don't like it. But what problems the Potter novels have are, in the grand scheme, just niggles. It all comes together in a really great way and in spite of the flaws, it's a really great series of books worthy of the classification of "epic."

    But one thing that might surprise people unfamiliar with Potter is that this is not a fantasy action-adventure series. It's more of a mystery series coated in a gooey chocolate fantasy syrup. Harry Potter himself tends to fill the role of a combination Frodo Baggins figure and up-and-coming detective character, and the most important plot points are, regardless of who figures out or explains a given part of things, presented as mysteries. Action sequences occur and can be quite intense, particularly in later volumes, but this is not the story of a big, super-cool hero slaying dragons; it's a story of circumstance, figuring out the circumstance, and then reacting to the circumstance. Some readers seem annoyed by the fact that eleven-year-old Harry never matures in this series to a point where by the end of magical high school he's capable of going head-to-head in a duel with a Dark Lord with decades of extensive magical knowledge under his belt, but that is simply not the angle that this series goes for. My comparison of Harry to Frodo Baggins was not an idle-name-drop. Harry's role in this story is very deliberately that of the hero who stands strong against adversity but ultimately triumphs through low-key action behind the scenes of a conflict in which number other, more powerful or more experienced combatants command the bulk of the Dark Lord's attention. And, like Frodo (and his progenitor, Bilbo), sometimes Harry is helped by sheer circumstance, the timely and skillful intervention of one of his friends, or a combination of his own efforts plus those things. The series does give us a fairly clear picture of what an action-centric lead character in this universe might look like, and I think that's where a fair portion of reader disappointment with Harry's more subdued take on heroics comes from, but he is an eleven-year-old who eventually becomes a seventeen-year-old over the course of the story, contending with a villain who has fifty-plus-year lead on experience over him. I think I would have raised an eyebrow had Harry ever bested Voldemort in a straight-up magical fight.

    As with everything, this series is something you should read for yourself if you're unsure. There's probably a copy available at your local library if you don't live in a particularly strict area with a stick up its rear about fantasy novels with magic in them. I recommend giving them a shot, and if Book One doesn't jive with you at first, sticking with it at least until the end of Book Two. This is a series that improves as it moves forward, each book adding new layers to the existing world by pacing its narrative in the same way a child might learn more and more about the real world as he or she grows into an adult, which is a large part of Harry Potter's effectiveness as a coming-of-age story. The reader, in a figurative sense, grows with Harry, as many of the original readers grew with Harry alongside the release of each subsequent book. This is as much a narrative tool as a consequence of readers aging as they read the books, because with very rare exceptions scattered through the series, the narrative is locked firmly into whatever it is that Harry Potter himself is seeing, hearing, saying, feeling, or thinking, and the reader's understanding of events and the world around him is often limited to what he knows or notices at any given time.

    As for the separate editions of these books. I can't voice for the "Complete Collection" eBook specifically, since I bought the eBooks individually on Pottermore, but assuming the formatting for the Complete Collection is identical, then the digital set relevant to this review is well-put-together and smoothly formatted, just about the best way you'll ever experience Harry Potter digitally without buying the iBooks-and-iOS-exclusive Enhanced Edition eBooks available on Pottermore, which feature animated illustrations and the like. If you have an iPad or iPhone, that is the edition I recommend for digital consumption, but for standard Kindle and Android users, or people who like reading eBooks on PC, this collection and its individual-eBook versions aren't inferior to physical books in any sense other than not having a special font for chapter headings; the U.S. editions of the eBooks even contain the iconic chapter title illustrations, although not the original American cover art (the minimalist cover art of the eBooks makes for a smoother transition between colored screens and black-and-white e-readers, though).

    The hardcover collection is one that I can't vouch for as a set, but having owned and read through the series in hardcover in the past, what I can vouch for is that the American hardcover editions are very nice to own. The box set for Hardcover may lack the text revision of the eBooks and more recent paperback printings, however, and while the chapter artwork and font for titles is something I prefer over the U.K. editions, it should be acknowledged that the American hardcovers are of a slightly cheaper construction than the U.K. editions, although also, paradoxically, they have a higher page count due to Scholastic's formatting choices (there are fewer words per page compared to the U.K. versions, and Order of the Phoenix has the formatting oddity of being the only book in the series with narrower margins and line-spacing, due to its much higher word count). Having researched this set, it should be acknowledged that the "trunk" is made of cardboard, so don't expect, you know, an extremely durable box or anything. It's just a stylized container for a box set.

    As for the paperback box set, the purchase that prompted this review? It's fantastic. The American version with the characters riding a dragon, specifically: I'm seeing a lot of user pictures in this review second for completely different sets, and it seems there's a motley assortment of mixed sets in the marketplace listings, too. The box itself is quite sturdy and adorned with beautiful artwork by the cover illustrator, Mary GrandPré, depicting a scene from later in the series that puts me in the mind of the old R.A. Salvatore "Cleric Quintet" omnibus cover art (which features a similar scene by what I assume is coincidence). The paperback volumes themselves are of a nice quality that makes them both more durable and less stiff-feeling than some smaller, cheaper mass-market paperbacks, and they even feature raised lettering for the front cover titling, although the paper and print quality are noticeably lesser than the hardcover editions, feeling at a casual touch like the pages would be easier to damage both by bending and by splashing a few drops of a drink in the book's general direction, not up to the quality of some of the better-made paperback novels that I own. Even so, these are paperbacks that should be taken care of and kept for posterity rather than tossed about like a cheapy grocery store throwaway novel that you picked up on a whim during a food-shopping trip, though the thickness of books four through seven may make it difficult to avoid bending the spines.

    Having checked certain passages in the books, I can also confirm that the paperback boxed set, bought new, should contained the revised editions of the text, as well, for as minor as those changes are to the overall experience (again, they're really just consistency tweaks).
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    5.0 out of 5 stars An Important Part of My Childhood, Which I Still Love Over 15 Years Later
    Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2016
    I've been a fan of Harry Potter since about the grade school, back when the only books that had been published yet were the first three, when Potter's popularity was still on the rise, when Christian fundamentalists were still catching on to the horrifying idea that a "witchcraft" story was gaining popularity with children, and grade-school teachers were similarly catching on to Harry Potter being a pretty effective tool for getting kids to develop a liking for books. Indeed, that was how I discovered them: my English teacher somewhere in the 6th-to-8th-grade portion of schooling (where my Catholic school shifted to a high-school-like classroom and teacher shuffle to prepare students for the routines public school would involve) introduced me and several other students who were showing less interest and enthusiasm in the class to the Harry Potter novels, actually lending us her own copies of the first three books to get us reading. By the time the much thicker fourth volume, Goblet of Fire, came out, I was so in love in the series that its intimidating size was far more appealing to me than intimidating, like a larger bowl of rocky road ice cream might look appealing.

    In the decade-and-a-half since, I've never let go of my love of Harry Potter, even if I have gone long stretches of time without keeping an active eye on the franchise. The recent revival of widespread Potter interest of the appealing-but-flawed sequel stage play ("Harry Potter and the Cursed Child") and an arguably-more-interesting-and consistently-engrossing prequel-sidestory-movie ("Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them") has prompted me to revisit the book series yet again, as well as replace my old worn-down hardcover copies with both the paperback box set and the eBook downloads from Pottermore's e-shop — which are cross-compatible with Kindle accounts and can be transferred over as identical files to the Kindle versions, by the way, even though Amazon doesn't count those files as purchases of the Kindle eBooks, but rather as separate account-exclusive items. Having checked on Audible, this series does not seem to be compatible with Whispersync for Voice no matter where you buy the eBooks as of yet, so audiobook fans who like to read the text while listening may wish to take note of that when deciding whether to buy a physical or eBook versions (this is possibly due to revisions having been made to the text for series consistency in the time since the audiobooks were recorded).

    In-depth reviews of the individual books are perhaps best saved for each book's individual page on Amazon, so I will give only a broad-stroke review of the stories here — if you are considering buying the series as a complete box set, it's likely you've already read and enjoyed at least the one of the books. But for the uninitiated, Harry Potter is a series that follows a boy, Harry himself, across a seven-year series of adventures culminating in the return and subsequent war against Lord Voldemort, a terrible Dark wizard who wreaked horrors upon the magical and non-magical communities alike until his unexpected and inexplicable destruction when he killed Harry's parents and then attempted to kill Harry while he was still an infant. Harry, growing up with his non-magical ("Muggle") aunt and uncle, who cruelly neglect and emotionally abuse him, receives a letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when he turns eleven, whereupon he discovers that not only is there a burgeoning community of witches and wizards living and hiding in plain sight in a seemingly-ordinary 1990s British society, but that he is famous among the magical community. They call him the "Boy Who Lived," the cause of Voldemort's disappearance and the end of his reign of terror. But as Harry enters the magical world and begins to learn about this new side of his life and the wonders of magic, he gets drawn into a series of perilous events that lead him closer and closer to his eventual destiny with each passing book, gradually revealing more of the truth behind what happened on the night Harry's parents were murdered and what led to it, among other things.

    Harry Potter is a fantastic series. One might be tempted to think it's overblown or over-rated by its enthusiasts. One would, in fact, be forgiven for taking that impression almost exclusively from the movies; they're enjoyable enough in their own right, but suffer problems of less-than-amazing adaptation and fluctuations in creative vision that make the film series feel somewhat disjointed and less-thoughtful than the books they're based on, and have the added problem of the younger actors and actresses often taking a few films to develop the skills to portray their characters naturally (an occupational hazard of a fantasy epic that relies on child actors, really). The Harry Potter novels, meanwhile, provide an arguably smoother introduction and, subsequently, a more fleshed-out experience in Harry's world, with the earlier, shorter books providing a comfortable and more "episodic" early portion that's great for allowing readers to get their feet wet, becoming gradually more involved and complex until the build-up culminates with the fourth and fifth novels, where the story goes all-in on characterization and worldbuilding detail, presuming the writer to be fully invested by that point, and keeping that level of maturity and intensity right up to the ending of the final volume.

    It would be remiss of me to call this series perfect, don't mistake the five-star rating for that. J.K. Rowling certainly has her weaknesses as a writer, and it could be accurately said that the novels suffer from a bit of a bloating problem that surfaced around Book Five, where Rowling clearly had more power to say "no" to her editors (incidentally, this is also the point at which the American text just gives up at hiding away a lot of the Britishisms in narration and dialogue, and I will say the books are at least better for that much). This is a clear Your Mileage May Vary kind of point. I personally enjoy the tangential worldbuilding that comes out of it, and consider it worth whatever "bloat" occurs as a result. But then, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is my favorite of the seven novels, and even for some avowed fans of Harry Potter, that book was too long and spent a little too much time on certain things. There's really no way to tell whether that will be a problem for you until you get there and either like it or don't like it. But what problems the Potter novels have are, in the grand scheme, just niggles. It all comes together in a really great way and in spite of the flaws, it's a really great series of books worthy of the classification of "epic."

    But one thing that might surprise people unfamiliar with Potter is that this is not a fantasy action-adventure series. It's more of a mystery series coated in a gooey chocolate fantasy syrup. Harry Potter himself tends to fill the role of a combination Frodo Baggins figure and up-and-coming detective character, and the most important plot points are, regardless of who figures out or explains a given part of things, presented as mysteries. Action sequences occur and can be quite intense, particularly in later volumes, but this is not the story of a big, super-cool hero slaying dragons; it's a story of circumstance, figuring out the circumstance, and then reacting to the circumstance. Some readers seem annoyed by the fact that eleven-year-old Harry never matures in this series to a point where by the end of magical high school he's capable of going head-to-head in a duel with a Dark Lord with decades of extensive magical knowledge under his belt, but that is simply not the angle that this series goes for. My comparison of Harry to Frodo Baggins was not an idle-name-drop. Harry's role in this story is very deliberately that of the hero who stands strong against adversity but ultimately triumphs through low-key action behind the scenes of a conflict in which number other, more powerful or more experienced combatants command the bulk of the Dark Lord's attention. And, like Frodo (and his progenitor, Bilbo), sometimes Harry is helped by sheer circumstance, the timely and skillful intervention of one of his friends, or a combination of his own efforts plus those things. The series does give us a fairly clear picture of what an action-centric lead character in this universe might look like, and I think that's where a fair portion of reader disappointment with Harry's more subdued take on heroics comes from, but he is an eleven-year-old who eventually becomes a seventeen-year-old over the course of the story, contending with a villain who has fifty-plus-year lead on experience over him. I think I would have raised an eyebrow had Harry ever bested Voldemort in a straight-up magical fight.

    As with everything, this series is something you should read for yourself if you're unsure. There's probably a copy available at your local library if you don't live in a particularly strict area with a stick up its rear about fantasy novels with magic in them. I recommend giving them a shot, and if Book One doesn't jive with you at first, sticking with it at least until the end of Book Two. This is a series that improves as it moves forward, each book adding new layers to the existing world by pacing its narrative in the same way a child might learn more and more about the real world as he or she grows into an adult, which is a large part of Harry Potter's effectiveness as a coming-of-age story. The reader, in a figurative sense, grows with Harry, as many of the original readers grew with Harry alongside the release of each subsequent book. This is as much a narrative tool as a consequence of readers aging as they read the books, because with very rare exceptions scattered through the series, the narrative is locked firmly into whatever it is that Harry Potter himself is seeing, hearing, saying, feeling, or thinking, and the reader's understanding of events and the world around him is often limited to what he knows or notices at any given time.

    As for the separate editions of these books. I can't voice for the "Complete Collection" eBook specifically, since I bought the eBooks individually on Pottermore, but assuming the formatting for the Complete Collection is identical, then the digital set relevant to this review is well-put-together and smoothly formatted, just about the best way you'll ever experience Harry Potter digitally without buying the iBooks-and-iOS-exclusive Enhanced Edition eBooks available on Pottermore, which feature animated illustrations and the like. If you have an iPad or iPhone, that is the edition I recommend for digital consumption, but for standard Kindle and Android users, or people who like reading eBooks on PC, this collection and its individual-eBook versions aren't inferior to physical books in any sense other than not having a special font for chapter headings; the U.S. editions of the eBooks even contain the iconic chapter title illustrations, although not the original American cover art (the minimalist cover art of the eBooks makes for a smoother transition between colored screens and black-and-white e-readers, though).

    The hardcover collection is one that I can't vouch for as a set, but having owned and read through the series in hardcover in the past, what I can vouch for is that the American hardcover editions are very nice to own. The box set for Hardcover may lack the text revision of the eBooks and more recent paperback printings, however, and while the chapter artwork and font for titles is something I prefer over the U.K. editions, it should be acknowledged that the American hardcovers are of a slightly cheaper construction than the U.K. editions, although also, paradoxically, they have a higher page count due to Scholastic's formatting choices (there are fewer words per page compared to the U.K. versions, and Order of the Phoenix has the formatting oddity of being the only book in the series with narrower margins and line-spacing, due to its much higher word count). Having researched this set, it should be acknowledged that the "trunk" is made of cardboard, so don't expect, you know, an extremely durable box or anything. It's just a stylized container for a box set.

    As for the paperback box set, the purchase that prompted this review? It's fantastic. The American version with the characters riding a dragon, specifically: I'm seeing a lot of user pictures in this review second for completely different sets, and it seems there's a motley assortment of mixed sets in the marketplace listings, too. The box itself is quite sturdy and adorned with beautiful artwork by the cover illustrator, Mary GrandPré, depicting a scene from later in the series that puts me in the mind of the old R.A. Salvatore "Cleric Quintet" omnibus cover art (which features a similar scene by what I assume is coincidence). The paperback volumes themselves are of a nice quality that makes them both more durable and less stiff-feeling than some smaller, cheaper mass-market paperbacks, and they even feature raised lettering for the front cover titling, although the paper and print quality are noticeably lesser than the hardcover editions, feeling at a casual touch like the pages would be easier to damage both by bending and by splashing a few drops of a drink in the book's general direction, not up to the quality of some of the better-made paperback novels that I own. Even so, these are paperbacks that should be taken care of and kept for posterity rather than tossed about like a cheapy grocery store throwaway novel that you picked up on a whim during a food-shopping trip, though the thickness of books four through seven may make it difficult to avoid bending the spines.

    Having checked certain passages in the books, I can also confirm that the paperback boxed set, bought new, should contained the revised editions of the text, as well, for as minor as those changes are to the overall experience (again, they're really just consistency tweaks).
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  • Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2024
    It was a great price for all of the books
  • Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2024
    I got this for my son this year for Christmas because he recently got into Harry Potter. These are so beautiful in their packaging. I love that they will look nice on his book shelf as well. I love that it came as a full set and I don’t have to track down all the editions.
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    5.0 out of 5 stars Packaging is so beautiful
    Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2024
    I got this for my son this year for Christmas because he recently got into Harry Potter. These are so beautiful in their packaging. I love that they will look nice on his book shelf as well. I love that it came as a full set and I don’t have to track down all the editions.
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    2 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2024
    I would buy again. Grandson loved it
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2024
    If you like Harry Potter and you want to own the books this is a great price and will last!

    ( I’m writing this review about two and a half years later )
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2024
    This is a very nice set of paperbacks! The Harry Potter series is one of my favorites and I gave away my original “ stand in line to get them” set but wanted to read it again. I love the young age to grown up idea for the series and all the wonderful magic! A great series for all young children and old children like me!

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  • vishnusagar
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Set of Magical Adventures Ever!
    Reviewed in Canada on October 4, 2024
    Harry Potter: The Complete Series, and I can confidently say it’s a masterpiece that captivated me from start to finish! J.K. Rowling has created an enchanting world filled with richly developed characters, intricate plots, and themes that resonate with readers of all ages.

    Each book takes you on a unique adventure, and I love how the series matures along with Harry and his friends. The magical elements are imaginative and immersive, making it easy to get lost in the Wizarding World. I was particularly impressed by the depth of character development; each character, whether hero or villain, has their own backstory and growth that adds layers to the narrative.

    The themes of friendship, bravery, and the battle between good and evil are beautifully woven throughout the series. It’s not just a story about magic; it’s a tale about love, sacrifice, and the choices we make.

    Reading the complete series was a nostalgic experience that brought back cherished memories from my childhood while also revealing new layers I hadn’t appreciated before. I wholeheartedly recommend the Harry Potter series to anyone who hasn’t read it yet or to those who want to revisit this beloved classic. It’s a timeless collection that truly deserves its place in literary history!

    Feel free to adjust any part of it!
  • Caio Proenca
    5.0 out of 5 stars Qualidade supreendente
    Reviewed in Brazil on September 25, 2023
    Vi essa coleção alguns anos atrás pessoalmente e decidi comprar para reler os livros do Potter. Não vi ainda uma edição em inglês com esta qualidade, exceto a coleção ilustrada com dobraduras que está sendo lançada aos poucos (mas considero ela de outro nível). Todos os livros possuem uma capa de pó com relevo laminado. A capa dura possui lombada de tecido com letras laminadas na lateral com o título do livro. O que me fez comprar esta coleção foi justamente a qualidade do material, em perceber que vai durar a vida toda, e possivelmente meus filhos vão ler depois de mim. É aquele tipo de coleção feita com esmero. Para quem quer aprender inglês, esta coleção é ótima para praticar. Foi uma das melhores aquisições que fiz nos últimos anos. Todas as páginas são grossas e amareladas, tornando a leitura prazeirosa e confortável para a vista. Recomendo muito! Apesar de não vir com o box da outra versão, ela vem protegida por um outro box bastante grosso, que protege os livros. Eles são livros relativamente grandes, sendo um pouco complicado para ler na rua ou viajando, mas perfeitos para uma leitura calma em casa.
  • ADRIANA BELMONT
    5.0 out of 5 stars Hermosa colección es perfecta y hermosa
    Reviewed in Mexico on January 19, 2022
    The media could not be loaded.
    Una excelente colección,sin defectos,preciosa para amantes del mundo de JK ROWLING no es corriente y tampoco barata el diseño es de lujo tampoco se ve delicada,revise hoja por hoja y está perfecto defectos no hay esta es una de las mejores compras que he hecho a través de Amazon llegó dos días antes en verdad amo la colección no tiene precedentes, me gustó más que la primera versión de libros que tuve le pongo 10/10.
    el arte que lleva en las portadas es sencillamente hermoso volvería a comprala sin dudar la mejor opción precio calidad que hay en Amazon.
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    ADRIANA BELMONT
    5.0 out of 5 stars Hermosa colección es perfecta y hermosa
    Reviewed in Mexico on January 19, 2022
    Una excelente colección,sin defectos,preciosa para amantes del mundo de JK ROWLING no es corriente y tampoco barata el diseño es de lujo tampoco se ve delicada,revise hoja por hoja y está perfecto defectos no hay esta es una de las mejores compras que he hecho a través de Amazon llegó dos días antes en verdad amo la colección no tiene precedentes, me gustó más que la primera versión de libros que tuve le pongo 10/10.
    el arte que lleva en las portadas es sencillamente hermoso volvería a comprala sin dudar la mejor opción precio calidad que hay en Amazon.
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  • Abraham
    5.0 out of 5 stars Digno de colección.
    Reviewed in Spain on December 10, 2024
    Una colección muy bonita
  • Mustafa Habip Polat
    5.0 out of 5 stars Çok iyiydi
    Reviewed in Turkey on November 19, 2024
    Sorunsuz geldi dil seviyesi b2 ve üstü ona göre alın özellikle ilk kitap