The Tales of Beedle the Bard

What a fantastic little offering from the very talented woman behind Harry Potter.
I am probably not the right person to be taking a critical look at anything by J.K. Rowling, seeing as I am an insane fangirl and wholeheartedly believe that the woman can do no wrong.
So, in that spirit, here is my gushingly positive review of The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

This book is a collection of original folktales set in the Harry Potter universe, touching on the same themes of the corrupting nature of power, the foolishness of pride, the importance of tolerance and acceptance, and the finality of death, as the seven Potter books do.
In addition to the five folktales, there are five small chapters of academic notes on each story, written from the perspective of Albus Dumbledore, with additional explanatory footnotes by J.K. Rowling herself.

The five stories are all very original whilst retaining a folksy feel full of archetypal characters and features, making the collection seem very familiar and very intimate. For me, it was The Fountain of Fair Fortune that struck a chord, in which three witches are accompanied by a knight on a journey towards the fountain in the tale's title, which gives fair fortune to the one who bathes in it. Throughout the story, the witches overcome the journey's obstacles despite the knight's valiant efforts to protect the lady, and in the end each of the four travellers find that the journey, rather than the destination, has given them fair fortune.
All five aim to teach a certain moral point, whether it be the virtue of charity, as in The Wizard and the Hopping Pot, the perils of being coldhearted, as in The Warlock's Hairy Heart, or the self-destructive nature of hubris, as both Babbity Rabbity and her Cackling Stump and the Tale of Three Brothers teach (though there is obviously a deeper folkloric dimension behind the magical objects in the final tale).

These moral ideals are given a whole new dimension through the way in which they are contextualised in the magical world of the Potterverse, where "we meet heroes and heroines who can perform magic themselves, and yet find is just as hard to solve their problems as we do". Subsequently, we meet resourceful witches, cunning old crones, and the humble but cunning Ignotus, the youngest brother in the final tale, but on the flip side witness the failure of Babbity's failed charlatan, and the horrible fate of the (literally) heartless warlock in the Hairy Heart.
Magic adds dimension to the fantastic fairytale plotlines but Rowling refrains from using magic as a solution to the hero/ines' problems and plot complications.

Dumbledore's notes were a fantastically sweet addition to this book that I was not expecting until I opened the cover this afternoon - and what a treat. Such a loved character who got a rather raw deal as far as page-time in the end of the series deserves his time to shine, and Rowling writes brilliantly for him in this volume.
Amongst my favourite moments in Dumbledore's commentary were a recount of Hogwarts' Only Attempt at a Christmas Pantomime in which an engorged salamander set fire to the great hall, Dumbledore's correspondence with Lucius Malfoy over the propriety of wizard-muggle relationships depicted in Hogwarts Library literature, including this fabulous quote: "this exchange marked the beginning of Mr Malfoy's long campaign to have me removed from my post as Headmaster of Hogwarts, and mine to have him removed from his position as Lord Voldemort's Favourite Death Eater"; and of course the good professor's musings on the inalienability of death in the notes on the Tale of Three Brothers.

Finally, the artwork must be commented on, for all the illustrations on the cover and within the pages of the book are by J.K. Rowling herself. They are very organic, natural and well-detailed drawings that look like they were rendered exclusively in biro (I thought you might enjoy that, dear Emily) and you can even see some of the remaining pencil marks underneath the ink lines on the title page. Though they are not quite professional standard illustrations, they are commendably in the spirit of the text and there can be nothing more relevant than that.

This book is printed on Forest Stewardship accredited paper, and 100% of the profits from sales go towards the Children's High Level Group, a non-profit organisation that endeavours to change the lives of institutionalised and marginalised children in Europe, improving literacy and quality of life. Everything about this book is worth picking up a copy, which are readily available across the globe from today, I believe, and I cannot emphasise enough how well spent my $10 was.