I wasn't going to buy J.K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard for myself. I am a fan of the Harry Potter books but I didn't think I needed to read this one. I bought it for my mom for Christmas and what did I get from her in return -- the same present! Now, after I have had a chance to read these five tales, I'm glad that I have a copy of this book.The fifth tale, "The Tale of the Three Brothers", is featured in the seventh Harry Potter book so I was familiar with that one but the other four were enjoyable as well. We read about a selfish wizard who finds a reason to help others, a trio of witches and a knight who are able to help each other in ways that they can't help themselves, a warlock who gives up his heart and sadly finds he is too late to ever retrieve it, a crafty witch who saves her kind and three brothers who deal with the Devil and find him a formidable foe. The stories are all short but packed with meaning. The commentary after each tale by Albus Dumbledore is quite amusing and informative and it makes me want to go back and read the books again because I realized that I miss Dumbledore!
And if you need another reason to purchase this book, all profits go to the Children's High Level Group charity which seeks to disband large institutions for orphans and invalid children in poor nations and to get them into more loving group, foster and adoptive homes.
Chasing the tales,
K
Buy The Tales of Beedle the Bard
on Amazon or find it at your local library.
So I could also read and enjoy these if I haven't read Harry Potter?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! There are no characters in these tales from the books except for Dumbledore but his is just commentary on the tales. JK Rowling has also added her own footnotes anywhere that a term or idea is used that people who have read the books would be familiar with but others might not -- although who hasn't heard of the term "muggle" by now?!?
ReplyDeleteI too am a huge HP fan and received this book as a gift for Christmas!! Loved it!! It was fun and full of wit! Dumbledore's commentary is really what made the book for me! In case you are interested, I reviewed the book myself on my blog at http://tiftalksbooks.blogspot.com/2008/12/tales-of-beedle-bard-by-jk-rowling.html . . . enjoy!
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