Book Review: the Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Dumbledore confuses Harry, Ron and Hermoine by leaving them an odd assortment of items in his will - including The Tales of Beedle the Bard. As with all of Dumbledore's often cryptic messages, the book plays a larger role than the three students originally expected.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is billed as a new translation by Hermoine Granger, and features an introduction by J. K. Rowling, as well as commentary after each fable by Dumbledore himself - the premise being that his notes were among the personal papers that were left to Howarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Dumbledore's will.

To say that J.K. Rowling has written a children's book in this volume would be blantantly unfair. Though the tales themselves are beautifully crafted short, light reading, each holds a deeper moral, all of which are meaningful. More Aesop's fables than classic fairy tales, J.K. Rowling brings her familiar themes of compassion for others and working together to solve problems to the short tales.

In Dumbledore's commentaries after each of the tales, Rowling not only reinforces those messages, she provides nuggets of back story to the wizarding world of Harry Potter and his friends, as well as memories of Dumbledore's history.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard contains five fables, The Wizard and the Hopping Pot,The Fountain of Fair Fortune, The Warlock's Hairy Heart, Babbitty Rabbity and her Cackling Stump, and, of course, The Tale of the Three Brothers, which played such a prominent role in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Another very interesting point on The Tales of Beedle the Bard is that the net proceeds have been pledged to the Children's High Level Group. This charity, co-founded by J.K. Rowling and Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, aims to help marginalized and institutionalized children across Europe. It is wonderful to see the social responsibility advocated in Rowling's themes being practiced by the author as well.

This beautiful volume is sure to please any Harry Potter fan, even without its good morals and charitable contributions, but those are nice bonuses as well. In The Tales of Beedle the Bard, J. K. Rowling continues to make the enchantment of the wizarding world so real, one feels they are reading about a true history of people whom they simply haven't had the fortune to encounter yet.