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Summary
Summary
The Tales of Beedle the Bard , a Wizarding classic, first came to Muggle readers' attention in the book known as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows . Now, thanks to Hermione Granger's new translation from the ancient runes, we present this stunning edition with an introduction, notes, and illustrations by J. K. Rowling, and extensive commentary by Albus Dumbledore.
Never before have Muggles been privy to these richly imaginative tales: "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot," "The Fountain of Fair Fortune," "The Warlock's Hairy Heart," "Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump," and of course "The Tale of the Three Brothers." But not only are they the equal of fairy tales we now know and love, reading them gives new insight into the world of Harry Potter.
This purchase also represents another very important form of giving: From every sale of this book, Scholastic will give its net proceeds to Lumos, an international children's charity founded in 2005 by J. K. Rowling. Lumos is dedicated to ending the institutionalization of children, a harmful practice that affects the lives of up to eight million disadvantaged children around the world who live in institutions and orphanages, many placed there as a result of poverty, disability, disease, discrimination and conflict; very few are orphans. Lumos works to reunite children with their families, promote family-based care alternatives, and help authorities to reform their systems and close down institutions and orphanages. www.wearelumos.org
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4 Up-Muggles grow up with Grimm's fairy tales; wizarding children grow up with Tales of Beedle the Bard. The Bard's book is a collection of five tales, bequeathed to Hermione Granger by Professor Dumbledore. The passing of the book into her hands was intended to be both "entertaining and instructive." As in all good mysteries, information contained within its pages provided Hermione with clues essential to helping Harry in the series' last installment. In particular, "The Tale of Three Brothers" describes how three magical items appeared after siblings cleverly cheat death. It is these items that play a pivotal role in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Scholastic, 2007). Those hoping to re-create the hours of pleasure spent curled up with a J.K. Rowling book may be disappointed at the brevity of this title, but they will undoubtedly enjoy the tales and Dumbledore's often lengthy, cynical-but-wise commentary on each one.-Robyn Gioia, Bolles School, Ponte Vedra, FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate) Presented as a collection of folktales from the magical world of Harry Potter, Rowling's follow-up to the best-selling series functions on several levels: the tales themselves; the brief analysis of each by, ostensibly, Albus Dumbledore; and the anecdotes embedded in those commentaries. From "The Fountain of Fair Fortune," a Wizard of Oz-esque teaching story about inner riches, to "The Warlock's Hairy Heart," a morbid narrative of emotional repression that ends in the titular warlock cutting out his beloved's heart, the tales are filled with the quirky details Rowling's fans expect. Taken at face value, the commentaries are actually somewhat pedantic ("As we have already seen, Beedle's first two tales attracted criticism of their themes of generosity, tolerance, and love") but nevertheless offer devoted Potterphiles tidbits of wizarding culture and history (including the dastardly doings of Malfoy forebears), conveyed in Dumbledore's distinctive voice. The minimalist style, tone, and character construction of the tales all differ significantly from those of Rowling's novels -- as they should, given the folkloric conceit -- but the additional content will appeal primarily to those already steeped in the details of Harry's universe. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Guardian Review
JK Rowling inserted a kind of fairy tale into Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and last Harry Potter tome. In his will, Professor Dumbledore leaves Hermione Granger his copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard , a collection of children's stories, and she later reads one out. In "The Tale of the Three Brothers", the brothers meet Death and win from him an Elder Wand, a Resurrection Stone and a Cloak of Invisibility. The greedy brothers who win the Wand and the Stone perish by them; the humble brother with the cloak lives a long life protected by it from Death, until in old age he voluntarily relinquishes it. These magical objects are the "Deathly Hallows" of the book's title. The story concerns the dangerous desire to vanquish death, a preoccupation in the book. Now Rowling has given us Dumbledore's collection, adorned with her own drawings and sold in aid of the children's charity that she set up with politician Emma Nicholson. It is a thin volume, with just four more brief tales added to the reprinted "Three Brothers", and bulked out with Dumbledore's "notes". Rowling is beyond needing to manufacture spin-offs, and the collection probably did begin, as she says, as a jeu d'esprit. Yet the fairy story is a tricky form, and it is not clear that Rowling's inventiveness and humour are suited to the genre. One problem is magic. Some of the most haunting stories of the Grimms or Hans Christian Andersen get their force from the eruption of the supernatural into the ordinary world. The ending to a fairy tale characteristically involves the end of magic: a curse is lifted, a spell is broken. Rowling explains that in her tales the heroes and heroines are familiar with magic already. In the first tale, "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot", a young wizard inherits a magic cooking pot from his father and has to learn to use it for the good of others. In a traditional tale, the son would be a selfish boy who was being admonished from another world. In Rowling's version, he is more like a geek having trouble with a new machine. A second story, "The Fountain of Fair Fortune", features a twist that many will recognise from "The Emperor's New Clothes": its characters believe their lives are being transformed by magic when in fact the fountain that brings happiness to each of them "carried no enchantment at all". Yet here too the spin is taken off the narrative by characters who are themselves capable of magic. A love-lorn witch uses her wand to draw from her mind all memories of the lover who has deserted her: a nice psychotherapeutic trick if you can do it. The Potter books allow for endless discussion of the rules by which magic works. In a fairy tale, in contrast, supernatural logic must be self-defining. So in "The Warlock's Hairy Heart", the story of a misogynistic wizard, it is frustrating that the protagonist can magically remove his own heart in the first part of the story, yet fatally cannot at the end. This story, like "Three Brothers" and "Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump", contains violent death or the threat of it, and Rowling's illustrations mingle flowers with memento mori emblems. She certainly does not shirk the grimness that sometimes defines the genre. The humour is in Dumbledore's notes. There is a certain amount of mock-scholarly fun, and the opportunity for the author to get back at some of her more pious critics. But for all their air of self-mockery, the notes protest too much on the part of Rowling's own endeavour. When we hear that a tale has, in the good prof's opinion, survived down the centuries because "it speaks to the dark depths in all of us", or that "this story made a profound impression on me as a boy", you feel that he is making claims for the power of not very powerful stories. Tales such as these, Xenophilius Lovegood informs Hermione in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , are "told to amuse rather than instruct", and many famous fairy stories are notably amoral. In Andersen's "Little Claus and Big Claus", the poor farmer wins peace and contentment by tricking his rival into being sewn into a sack and thrown into a river. The soldier in "The Tinderbox" cuts off the witch's head when she refuses to tell him why she wants the tinderbox, yet he goes on to win the hand of the beautiful princess. Throats are cut and hearts removed from bodies in Rowling's tales, but they manage nothing as blithely cruel as the best fairy tales. To order The Tales of Beedle the Bard for pounds 6.99 with free UK p&p call Guardian book service on 0870 836 0875 or go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop Caption: article-beedle.1 Now [JK Rowling] has given us Dumbledore's collection, adorned with her own drawings and sold in aid of the children's charity that she set up with politician Emma Nicholson. It is a thin volume, with just four more brief tales added to the reprinted "Three Brothers", and bulked out with [Dumbledore]'s "notes". Rowling is beyond needing to manufacture spin-offs, and the collection probably did begin, as she says, as a jeu d'esprit. Yet the fairy story is a tricky form, and it is not clear that Rowling's inventiveness and humour are suited to the genre. Tales such as these, Xenophilius Lovegood informs Hermione in [Harry Potter] and the Deathly Hallows , are "told to amuse rather than instruct", and many famous fairy stories are notably amoral. In [Hans Christian Andersen]'s "Little Claus and Big Claus", the poor farmer wins peace and contentment by tricking his rival into being sewn into a sack and thrown into a river. The soldier in "The Tinderbox" cuts off the witch's head when she refuses to tell him why she wants the tinderbox, yet he goes on to win the hand of the beautiful princess. Throats are cut and hearts removed from bodies in Rowling's tales, but they manage nothing as blithely cruel as the best fairy tales. - John Mullan.
Booklist Review
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007), Hermione Granger is left a book from the late Dumbledore's collection, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a collection of fairy tales young wizards heard growing up. In 2007, Rowling handwrote and illustrated 7 copies of Beedle the Bard, one of which was auctioned off for millions of dollars with the proceeds going to charity. Originally, there was to be no mass publication of the book, but the desire for all things Potter by Harry's fans could not be denied. And so, readers can now own their own copies of this odd little book of five tales, complete with the commentary of Albus Dumbledore. Of most interest will be The Tale of the Three Brothers, whose story directly impacts on Harry's saga as revealed in the series final volume. But the other quirky tales have their own appeal, especially for dedicated fans. Using familiar fairy-tale elements, such as a magical pot and three brothers on a quest, the stories seem straightforward until Dumbledore's edifying commentary turns them on their head. Without the usual hoopla surrounding publication of a Rowling novel, this little curiosity will probably attract only Potter fanatics, but it will also be of marginal interest to all those readers who still miss Harry and would like one more shot at the wizarding world.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2009 Booklist