The Tales of Beedle The Bard Book Review

The Tales of Beedle The Bard is a small book comprised of five wizarding fairy tales written by J.K. Rowling the net proceeds of which benefited the Children's High Level Group. The first seven books of this title were handcrafted and sold for millions; this review is of the mass market or standard edition available to you and me.

Harry Potter was a huge part of our lives as my sons grew up. It was natural that we would be interested in further writings by J.K. Rowling. We devoured every book in the Harry Potter series. We enjoyed the movies; they were entertaining, but they were definitely no match for the books. We wished silently for more Harry Potter books.

This Christmas, my oldest son Douglas gifted The Tales of Beedle The Bard to his fifteen-year-old brother, Ian. Ian immediately placed it on his bedstand and read it right away. You will find his review later on this page.

Then I discovered that this book has quietly or somewhat quietly managed to creep into bestseller status. At the end of December, 2008, Amazon had it rated Number 5 on the bestseller's list. For me, that was surprising. I needed to check it out so I stole the book from my son's room and now it is on my bedstand.

To hear what I thought of this book, Ian's opinion and other reviews about this little book by J.K Rowling, read on!

The Tales of Beedle The Bard, The Standard Edition. The first cover shown above is the new, 2017 U.S. edition. The second one shown above is the original U.S. edition. The blue one show below is the Canadian edition that we read in our home in Canada.

The Standard Edition includes:

• The original five fairy tales, "The Tales of Beedle the Bard."
• J.K. Rowling's new (for the standard edition) introduction.
• Illustrations that have been reproduced from the original book.
• Professor Albus Dumbledore's commentary on each of the tales.

A Mom

Excellent, entertaining stories fill this little volume of fairy tales. Dumbledore comments after each story, explaining and relating each one to the Harry Potter series and to the lives of witches and wizards and J.K. Rowling explains terms or facts that us muggles might not understand. I enjoyed reading this book. It made me want to see the fully illustrated originals or even the limited collector's edition.

Fairy tales as they were told to wizarding children. There are no damsels in distress or knights in shining armour here. The only knight in all five stories is in fact in distress himself. The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a new insight into the life of a young wizard. Mentioned several times in the Harry Potter series, we were never really told what the stories were. By reading this book, we are able to get a glance into the stories that shaped the imaginations of the growing witches and wizards.

The Tales were both illuminating and fun to read. I would recommend the book The Tales of Beedle the Bard to any and all who enjoyed the Harry Potter series.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard was thoroughly enjoyable. Not only did I enjoy the fairy tales for the magic born, but Dumbledore's comments were enlightening. I particularly enjoyed the play on French words in the story of "Bobbity Robbity and her Cackling Stump." As per usual, Hermione did a wonderful job with the translation!

A bonus is that a portion of the book's selling price goes to a very worthwhile charity, Children's High Level Group.

The Tales of Beedle The Bard was launched at a party at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, December 4th, 2008. Attendance was limited to 8 to 11 year-olds from the area who were chosen by ballot in the local newspaper. A few tickets were also given away through contests by Scholastic, Bloomsbury and Amazon.

What did you think?