The Tales of Beedle the Bard (2008)

The only reason I started this book was because it was about a 100 pages and I was bored and had nothing better to do. You can safely surmise that I was not expecting much out of this book and out of the writer , to be precise. I remember having read Harry Potter and its magic not really touching me. But, boy I was wrong . This book takes you to a world where magic and muggles co existed. It actually convinces you that such a world can exist , this book cleverly pulls of the stunt of being a fairytale with a healthy narration of the society as it was.
A lovely book, crisp and takes you to a beautiful journey where everything is possible. ( )

Easily my favorite of the three books in the Hogwarts Library box set. ( )

My tale preferences goes as follows:

1. The Fountain of Fair Fortune (Also an alliteration!)
2. The Warlock's Harry Heart
3. The Tale of Three Brothers
4. Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump
5. The Wizard and the Hoping Pot

Wow that was hard. Many of these are tied but I forced myself to give them all a place. The only ones I can say for certain are the first and the last ones. The Wizard and the Hopping Pot did not impress me and wasn't the strongest start. The Fountain of Fair Fortune reminded me of Disney's and Grimm's and Christian's stories that I loved as a kid. Pure, sweet nostalgia!

My first thought after reading this was that I wished there was more. Not necessarily more stories, but I wish that a greater portion of the novel was dedicated to Beedle's fables and not to Dumbledore's notes. I also wish there had been a bit more to The Tale of Three Brothers. It was pretty much the same thing that was presented to us in the [b: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows|136251|Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7)|J.K. Rowling|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1474171184s/136251.jpg|2963218], book or film. I was hoping for a little extra something, especially since the author saved this one for last and I have to read everything in order, no matter how much I don't want to. Other than that, this book was outstanding and by far my favourite of the Hogwarts Library!

At first I was worried these stories would be too close to the Brothers Grimm's or to Aderson Christain's, but they weren't. They were unique (in ways explained in the introduction) and 100% wizarding tales. The messages, directed primarily to young witches and wizards, did little for me but it did not decrease my enjoyment of the novel. Some even did have relevance to us Muggles, like magic is not always the solution. Dumbledore's and Rowling's notes, while long, gave much appreciated depth to the wizarding world and life as a young witch/wizard and Hogwarts student. The history of how the fables were adapted into less crude/gory/Muggle-loving stories were much like what has happened to our classic tales over the course of time.

What surprised me the most was how open the stories were to Muggles. It's easy in Harry Potter to get that most of the peoples of the wizarding world are not open to them or Muggle-born witches/wizards, yet these stories encourage children to kind to their magicless neighbours and that it's okay to love a non-magical person. Of course this spiked some nasty letters from Luscious Malfoy, but I'm with Dumbledore and will ignore them.

The references to [b: Fantastic Beats and where to Find Them|41899|Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them|Newt Scamander|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1303738520s/41899.jpg|4195128] was a nice change. It's one of the only references in the whole of the Hogwarts Library collection that I could actually look up. I wish there were more of these textbooks out there... especially the ones referenced in the companions. It would just make it all complete.

And finally, the best part about this book is that some of the money from the purchase goes to charity.

Probably the longest review I've written to date (excluding all the papers done for school for The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom) ( )

I wasn't particularly impressed with the previous illustrated book from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter that I read, but thankfully the illstrated version of the Tales of Beedle the Bard was a delight! Chris Riddell's cartoonish but slightly strange illustrative styleis well-suited for depicting the fairy tales of the wizarding world, because it strikes just the right balance between reality and whimsy, placing the stories just to one side of reality - just like the wizarding world itself. The stories themselves remain the same as the regular published edition, partnered with pithy and insightful commentary by none other than Albus Dumbledore, meant to give readers a glimpse into the childhood stories of young witches and wizards. I was not really into the stories when I first read the book, but this time around I definitely appreciated them more. The illustrations definitely helped, bringing the stories visually to life, just like the collections of Grimms and Hans Christian Andersen were brought alive by Arthur Rackham and Kay Neilsen, and Riddell's choice to illustrate even Dumbledore's commentary section was well done. Riddell is known for personally illustrating his own books and we saw a published attempt at the style with Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (not very successfully, in my opinion), so to the reader's eye these sections looke like Dumbledore himself is doodling away alongside his commentary! An excellent pairing choice of content with author - this is definitely the edition of Tales of Beedle the Bard that I would suggest to future readers! ( )

The tales of Beedle the Bard is a collection of stories written for young wizards and witches. They have been popular bedtime reading for centuries, with the result that the Hopping Pot and the Fountain of Fair Fortune are as familiar to many of the students at Hogwarts as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are to Muggle children.