Spoiler Warning: If you have not read all 7 Harry Potter books, read at your own risk. (I may be an evil cousin, but no one should be robbed the experience of reading the Harry Potter series.) However, if you haven't read them by now, shame on you. Stop reading this review and go read the bloody series!
We've all heard such timeless (Disney) classics as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White. These are our beloved childhood bedtime stories, our fairy tales. Well, Wizards and Witches have classic fairy tales too! Five of which can be found in the Wizarding classic The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Just like Muggle fairy tales, each of the five stories deals with a different theme and teaches a lesson. However, as a Muggle, it may be difficult to truly grasp all of the lessons taught by Beedle the Bard. To help us better understand these magical tales, Albus Dumbledore has kindly given extensive commentary on each tale. (The commentary was published without Dumbledore's consent. It was found among his other belongings after his dead.)
Anyone who has read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is at least vaguely familiar with this book of tales. Hermione receives a copy, from Dumbledore if I am not mistaken. Well, Rowling decided to publish a copy of Beedle's tales for Muggle enjoyment. All the sales go to the Children's High Level Group, a charity that provides support to children in need. The children tend to be poor, disabled, or from ethnic minorities. If you want to support a lovely charity AND get a little light-hearted reading on the side, or vice versa, this is definitely the book for you.
If you are still not convinced that this book is worth the buy, here is my criticism of the book (which happens to be mostly good).
The tales themselves are nothing special. They're mostly just cute. The stories are imaginative, but they're nothing like the books. The books are very long, detailed, and everything mentioned seems to have some significance before the series ends (which is one of the reasons I love Rowling's writing so much). These tales are short. There's no time for that kind of no-loose-ends writing. However, Rowling makes up for it by adding Dumbledore's commentary. His words are thoughtful, witty, and all around awesome! Not only does he add insight into the theme and lesson of each story. He also rambles on about little side notes (from letters between himself and Lucius Malfoy to his criticism of Madam Bloxam's revised version of Beedle's "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot"), both of which were quite humorous to say the least. Dumbledore will keep you alternating between the thinker pose (hand stroking the chin) and simply laughing uncontrollably and a variation of a giggle fit.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed Beedle's tales. The book is a very quick read, which was rather disappointing to me, but it's still a great little book.
I give The Tales of Beedle the Bard a respectable 3.5 daggers out of 5.
Yours without magic,
Gabriel Gethin
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 3 of 3
Blog: 3 Evil Cousins (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: the tales of beedle the bard, dumbledore, Harry Potter, j.k. rowling, fairy tales, 3 evil cousins, gabriel gethin, Add a tag
Blog: PaperTigers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Harry Potter, Children's Books, Authors, J, Book Chat, Bangkok, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, T Title, Children's High Level Group, R Authors, K. Rowling, Add a tag
If there is anybody who doubts the power of J.K. Rowling to excite readers around the world, please look carefully at this photo. At the moment that The Tales of Beedle the Bard is being released in English, it is also appearing in Thai–and on a huge banner outside a Bangkok bookstore.
This is particularly exciting because in the dark ages before Harry Potter, conventional wisdom claimed that Thai children would only read comic books. It just took one young wizard and his talented creator to prove that generalization was wrong–and his magic continues to keep young readers in Thailand–and all over the world– reading.
Putting this book on your list of holiday gifts to give ensures that more than one child will be happy if you buy it. J.K. Rowling is giving all profits from this book to the Children’s High Level Group, a charity devoted to helping the one million children in Europe who live in large institutions. If there was ever a good reason to buy one book for everyone on your gift list, this could be it.
<!--[if gte mso 9]>
Blog: Through the Looking Glass Book Review (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: The tales of Beedle the Bard, contest, J. K. Rowling, Add a tag
To celebrate the launching of her new book The Tales of Beedle the Bard, J. K. Rowling is going to be hosting a special event at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. Five lucky American children between the ages of eight and seventeen will be selected to attend this event. All your child needs to do to be considered is to write an essay of no more than 200 words about how they have helped others, which they need to send to Scholastic Books in New York City. Entries need to be in the hands of the people at Scholastic by October 30th so get writing! For more information and for all the official rules for the contest please visit the contest webpage.
Add a Comment
Great review! I agree completely-- and have to say that I, too was a bit disappointed. I suppose that I expected too much because of how I absolutely adore the Harry Potter books. It just felt sort of weak; I would rather she commit to another really intricate, excellent story (not necessarily HP) than publish this sort of half-there book. That said, however, I still absolutely ADORE jkr, and if I was ever fortunate enough to come across the ground she walks on, I would most certainly worship it.
what i liked about the book and thought was really special were the sketches and illustrations by j.k.r.