Harry Potter Schoolbooks: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them / Quidditch Through the Ages

Although not a necessary addition to everyone's personal Harry Potter library, these two little books are quite interesting and a lot of fun to read. They are both quite short, totaling less than sixty five pages apiece, but they are wonderfully put together and made to look like copies of real books from the Hogwarts library. None other than Albus Dumbledore himself writes the introduction to each book, explaining how and why these books are being made available to Muggles for the first time and explaining how proceeds from each book go directly to a fund, set up in Harry Potter's name by Comic Relief UK and author J.K. Rowling, which is dedicated to help children in need throughout the world.Quidditch Through the Ages, penned by Quidditch expert Kennilworthy Whisp explains the ultimate sport of wizards from top to bottom, giving the centuries-old history of the game as it has evolved. First and foremost, he explains why wizards and witches employ brooms to fly on in the first place, and then he proceeds to give an account of the changing rules of the game from its early days of primitive baskets set atop poles to the standardized and world-sweeping format of today. Of most significance and interest is the story of how the Golden Snitch was introduced into the sport. Different strategies and maneuvers are named and explained, the thirteen Quidditch teams of England and Ireland are identified, some of the seven hundred types of fouls are explained, and some of the most memorable games and individual performances are detailed (including the Tutshill Tornados' Roderick Plumpton's amazing snag of the Golden Snitch only three and a half seconds into a game back in 1921).Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander is a compendium of all the fantastic beasts currently known, from the Acromantula to the Yeti. Prior to the actual listings, Scamander explains the criteria by which some beings have come to be labeled beasts (it's more complicated than you might think) and devotes some time to the obvious question as to why Muggles seem to spot such creatures only rarely. Each listing also carries the classification assigned each beast by the Ministry of Magic, which is important information given that these beasts range from the harmless to the controllable to the incredibly dangerous. Along with fascinating descriptions of the animals we have already encountered in the Harry Potter books, there are some real jewels of information included here, solving several Muggle mysteries such as that of the true identity of the Loch Ness Monster. Fantastic Beasts is a copy of Harry Potter's own personal copy of the book, and its margins are dotted with little notes ranging from the mundane to the bitingly funny written by Harry, Ron, as well as Hermione. Now, if we could only get our hands on A History of Hogwarts; I'm sure Hermione has a copy they can use for the printing of a Muggle edition.

I loved these two books! They are small, but packed to the last page with lots of interesting details!The margins of many pages in Harry's own copy of Fantastic Beasts have "written in" comments by Ron, Hermione and Harry, and many of them are not only amusing but interesting. Roughly the first 1/4 of the book is full of introductions, explanations, history, and rules, with the remaining 3/4 dedicated to every magical beast written about in the 7 Harry Potter novels. There are a number of drawings of the animals being described as well. A very handy source to have when reading the novels, because often in the novels themselves, Rowling doesn't give clear descriptions of the beasts!For Quidditch Through the Ages, I don't recall seeing any "written in" comments from the characters (probably because this one is a library book and thus such writings would have resulted in loss of points and/or detention). However, there is a lot of description of the game and MUCH on its history and development and famous Quidditch teams, as well as several pictures, charts, and diagrams for the game itself. I was thoroughly enthralled in this book, and loved how detailed Rowling was. Any questions left regarding Quidditch that readers might have come up with when reading the novels have been answered, in my opinion.Overall, fabulous job, Rowling! My one surprise is that this collection doesn't have a third book entitled, Hogwarts, A History. For a book that receives so much attention/mentioning in the novels, I'm surprised she hasn't written a real version and released it with these two Hogwarts school books. That is one book I'd particularly love to read. :)

I love having these to go along with my HP collection and they look cute on my bookshelf. I really enjoy the little side comments from Harry and Ron as well.

It is wonderful to be able to read two of the books that Harry Potter reads during the course of his schooling. I especially liked that in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them humorous notes are written in by Harry Potter (as if it was actually his copy of the book you are reading). The hand-written notes aren't on every page, but I enjoyed them wherever they cropped up. (You get to find out why Crookshanks is so smart. Rowling has said he is half Kneazle and Kneazles are detailed herein along with all the other magical creatures mentioned). Quidditch Through The Ages was great also. It is interesting to get the back story on why the golden snitch is used and what the bludgers are made of. The book also tells a little about all of the major Quidditch teams and different moves and penalties from the game. Both books have a foreword by Albus Dumbledore explaining them to Muggles. Rowling has done another great job on these two small books. They are a pretty quick read and very enjoyable. I would highly recommend them to any Harry Potter fan. They are very worth the money and you should buy yourself a copy if you haven't already.