Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them / Quidditch Through the Ages

J. K. Rowling's little addendums to the HP books, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages, are both very fun. These tongue-in-cheek books were written to aid Comic Relief, an organization that works to improve the lives of children worldwide. Both feature advance reader blurbs from characters in the Harry Potter series (like Gilderoy Lockhart and Bathilda Bagshot), and introductions by Albus Dumbledore. The play is that Dumbledore worked with the authors and publishers to have these books printed for a Muggle/wizard market for the first time. He assures Muggle readers that none of what follows is true, and then says something in mysterious Latin to his wizard audience. Quite fun.

Fantastic Beasts and Where show more to Find Them is a bestiary written by Newt Scamander. It is now in its 52nd edition and Dumbledore writes that it has been approved curriculum at Hogwarts for many years. Some of the species listed have real-world mythical roots (like dragons and basilisks) and others are purely the fruit of Rowling's imagination (like Horklumps and Snidgets). It's a quick read.

Quidditch Through the Ages is by Kennilworthy Whisp and examines the game of Quidditch from a historical perspective, tracing the development of the game from medieval times to the present. Whisp discusses each piece of equipment and its origin, and gives a rundown of the thirteen major teams.

Scattered over both books are occasional doodles and sarcastic comments penned by Harry and Ron. Obviously these books aren't going to appeal to anyone except Harry Potter fans, but I enjoyed them. They're nice on the shelf next to the series. show less

I loved how inside Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, there are little witty 'scribbles' from Ron, Harry and Hermione. Reminded me of what I always did to my textbooks too! Both books are very pleasantly detailed and wittily written. I loved it!

While not the most brilliant writing from the author, these two companion volumes belong on the bookshelf of every Harry Potter fan. While taking a working break from writing the Harry Potter series, Ms. Rowling exercised her creativity in present us with another view into the fantasy world of Harry Potter and friends.

With her usual wit, instead of a dry recount of the early days of a sport, in "History of Quidditch" we are treated to yet more odd characters from Rowling's magical pen.
"Magical Beasts" is fashioned after the beastiaries of old that cataloged various non-existent creatures. If only we had a holographic Hagrid to guide us through the lessons!

As an added personal bonus, you can feel good about buying these book snew as Ms. show more Rowling donates a portion of the proceeds to a foundation promoting literacy. show less

I really enjoy how Harry, Ron, and Hermonie wrote all over the book. it's quite hilarious, and is a great insight into how a textbook looks like at Hogwarts. The book is rather short -- only 42 pages, but that's a nice number to stop at. ;) It's a great reference book if you're out hunting for magical beasts.

These are really cool, especially Fantastic Beasts, with little notes from Harry and Ron. Unfortunately mine got left out in the rain once, but it's still really good. Quidditch can be a bit boring, though.

These two companion books to the Harry Potter series are adorable. They are written as if you have acquired the books of Harry (and/or friends) and includes not only the book information but little doodles in the margins.

Pretty nice books, a quite funny and cool to read. They save you a good time =D