The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Standard Edition (Harry Potter) (2008 original; edició 2008)

This book is filled with fairy tales for young wizards and witches. It has been translated from the original runes by the wonderfully brilliant Hermione Granger and includes a forward as well as educational footnotes for us muggles by J.K. Rowling. The stories range from the delightfully moral such as The Fountain of Fair Fortune (my personal favorite) to horribly gruesome, The Warlock’s Hairy Heart. Like the original fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, probably not really appropriate for very young children, magical or otherwise.

It is, of course, most famous for The Tale Of The Three Brothers, which plays such a glaring role in Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. What really makes ‘Tales’ special though are the notes of Albus Dumbledore, found after his death and included in this edition. His insight and research into each of the stories are both illuminating and frustrating since many of the works Dumbledore cites aren’t available for the perusal of the average muggle such as myself. Personally, I could wish for a library full of wizarding lore such as this quick and fun read. ( )

FIRST READ in 2013 - 3 stars

RE-READ in 2019 - 3.5 stars

Basically, this was fun but nothing spectacular.
I did like stories. ( )

《And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life.》



Re-read :) I enjoyed it even more compared to the first time I read it!! ♥ ( )

Hermione Granger has translated the marvelous tales of Beedle the Bard from their original runes. Here are the tales that for generations have been taught to wizard children, with commentary from Albus Dumbledor himself, and notes from J. K. Rowling.

I read this book as a favor to a friend whose child has begun to show an interest in the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling. Having read the Harry Potter books as a teen, it has been some years since I have read any of the original books.

This book was published after the original seven books, if I understand correctly, and is not connected to Harry Potter himself. Rowling has, in this book, written a collection of fables for her magical community. Much like our "Aesop's Fables," these tales are written to teach children certain morals.

Unlike the Harry Potter books, this book appears to be written for a younger audience. It includes simpler vocabulary and illustrations and is only 107 pages long.

While the morals they attempt to teach are, for the most part, morals parents do, in fact, try to teach their children, some of the stories are unpleasant and, perhaps, not something parents would like their younger children reading. My meaning being that the style is for a younger audience, while the stories themselves, are for an older one.



It is well written and developed, with Albus Dumbledor's character evident, as if Rowling took on his character while writing. I believe anyone who enjoyed the Harry Potter series would enjoy this book.

I do caution parents of younger children that this book does, in fact, have questionable content for younger readers, including a murder/suicide. Each parent is responsible for judging their own children's maturity level. I simply suggest parents may want to read this book before their younger children.

I bought this book from my local library and have permission to use the image above, granted by J. K. Rowling's PR representative with the condition that I properly credit it. Therefore, this book was written by J. K. Rowling and published by Scholastic Inc.

I loved this ever since I read the HP books, of course. It’s some sort of sentimentality on my side but of course I like this book. ( )