Discover Harry Potter's wizarding world's unique fairy tales in "The Tales of Beedle the Bard." Filled with wizarding fables that invoke "Grimm's Fairy Tales," these five short stories carry messages of hope, morality, and virtue. Rowling expands Harry Potter's universe by sharing these magical fairy tales in a writing style that's easy to read and appeals not only to children, but adults as well.
The most compelling story is that of the three brothers. They encounter death as they cross a bridge. Death gives them each a gift - the elder wand, a stone that brings back the dead, and the cloak of invisibility. It is this story which is referenced in book seven of the Harry Potter series and it gives Voldemort's driving desire to possess these objects perspective, as Voldemort was trying to find a way to cheat death.
The other stories are just as interesting. In "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot," a self-serving wizard refuses to share the hopping pot with the townsfolk. His refusal to help others leads the hopping pot to drive him crazy until he does. In Dumbledore's footnotes, Rowling cleverly ties in legends of our own history and talks about how the wizarding community and humans came to have separate societies.
"The Fountain of Fair Fortune" rebuilds trust between muggles and the magical. Three witches and a knight go on a quest and discover what they were looking for was more in their hearts than in their magic.
"The Warlock's Hairy Heart," tells what happens when a magician gives up his humanity by removing his heart. Its probably the most gory of the fairy tales - but its also one that captures the essence of the Grimm stories.
"Babbity Rabbitty and her Crackling Stump," is one of the first stories in Harry Potter's universe that deals with Animagi - those wizards and witches who can change into animals. In it, an arrogant king wants to be the only one who can do magic in the kingdom. A sly charlatan who can't do magic, fools the king into becoming the Grand Sorcerer. When the king puts the charlatan on the spot, he turns to Babbitty, an old witch, to help him fool the king.
All the stories have folksy, fairytale appeal. They read like we would expect a fairytale to. The use of magic in the story makes little difference to the moral of the story being told.
The book complements Rowling's Harry Potter series well. The writing is easy to understand. The stories are well paced. Rowling makes her characters appealing with little emotional touches reminiscent of the Harry Potter series. Overall, "The Tales of Beedle the Bard," is a book all will enjoy.
"The Tales of Beedle The Bard"
Written by: JK Rowling
Scholastic, Inc.
ISBN: 978-0-545-12828-5
$12.99
5 Stars
StephB is an author who can be found at http://sgcardin.tripod.com.
In her spare time she likes to read many books and a variety of different genres. StephB is an author at http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Creative Writing.
No comments:
Post a Comment