Customer Reviews

Comic Relief: fantastic beasts & where to find them

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This cute little book was actually part of a pair (along with Quidditch Through the Ages) produced by J.K. Rowling for the charity Comic Relief. Written in a tongue in cheek manner, this book claims to be a copy of a textbook shared by Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, complete with margin notes and doodles! Purportedly written by one Newton "Newt" Artemis Fido Scamander, this book discusses magical creatures in J.K. Rowlings world, treating them all most seriously, and telling you a surprising amount about them.

This is a fun book for any Harry Potter fan to own. It's a good, light-hearted read, and I must say that I found the glimpse into J. K. Rowling's world to be quite fascinating. I hope that some more of these creatures find their way into future stories, as they are quite interesting. Buy this book!

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" truly is an excellent companion to the Harry Potter books.
Written in J.K. Rowling's consistantly humorous style, the book is interesting, and to prevent the information from becoming boring, there are lots of funny remarks and comments supposedly "written" by Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, two of the Harry Potter books' main characters.
It is also fascinating - if you observe the book carefully, you will see how much effort has been put into it to make it look like it really DID come right out from Harry's world.

This book is a must for Harry Potter fans everywhere, but should only be read after completing the main books, as otherwise it will not be as easy to understand. Also, from purchasing this book, you will have the pleasure of knowing that you have helped a great cause, no matter where you might be.

I hate to give away some of the books more interesting points, but I LOVE the way this book is written to explain away muggle sightings of magical beasts such as the Loch Ness Monster, and other creatures featured in muggle "fairy stories" such as fairies, unicorns, trolls, etc. It also explains how such creatures can really exist without our knowledge. The Foreward by Dumbledore that mentions the "Thiefs Curse" on anyone reading the book who did not purchase it is also cute. The notes by Harry, Ron, and Hermoine are amusing as well.

Another benefit for any reader of Harry Potter books is that it gives one a greater understanding of why creatures like the centaurs in the first book and the mermaids in the fourth book mostly want little to do with humans. Of course this portrayal of the centaurs behavior is only in the book and not the movie, and therefore wouldn't be at all intriguing to someone who has only seen the movie, but only to a true addict like myself. I can't wait till the 5th book is released - I WANT MORE!

This is a just a charming little book, absolutely in the marvelous JK Rowling style that we have all learned to love. This book served the marvelous purpose of sucking my children into reading the whole series. My older son was quite intimidated by the size of the main books, until this one came out, when he was about 10. He loved all the trivia in here and lept on to the larger books with alacrity so he could find all of the animal characters in them. It made Harry Potter seem like Pokemon to him. The younger one followed his older brother's example and became an even more enthusiastic fan.

I just have one little gripe. The book is out of date. It lacks descriptions of some of the main magical creatures in the series, e.g. blast ended skrewts, thestrals, and the serpent who is Voldemort's companion. A new edition is in order. Now such an edition might seem a bit tricky, because the other was supposed to be the edition with Harry Potter's handwritten notations in the margin, but the necessity for the new edition could easily be attributed to a magical printer's error.

This book is great for HP fans! Learn what a Imp is or learn about Muggle awareness. Learn about almost every beast in the magical world with this. Learn what a Doxy is or a Flobberworm. Harry's world is full of make-belive animals. With over 75 animals to learn about you will be amazed how JK thought of it! It gots a Foreword by Dumboldore. This book gives you a understanding of HP's world in the books.

First I would like to say how much I enjoyed this book, despite its shortness. It offers insight into animals we have already seen and some that we will(hopefully). While I wish that the descriptions were much, much longer, it offers a breif description of many animals from around the world.

Some people are complaining that certain animals are not in this book. Here is why:

Voldemorts snake: It is a Basilisk

Thestral: Look under "Winged Horse." Only one sentence though

Blask-Ended Skrewts: Because Hagrid bred these monsters illegally, he is the only one to know this and has not registered them with the MoM

The only monster that I can think of right now that is not included is the boggart, though I am sure that there are others. I think that Rowling should write some more books like this one in order to give us more info into the world of HP. I would like to see one on things like vampires, hags, and goblins, since they are not in this book because they are termed "beings" (able to speek and comprehend the human language), and one on the MoM and wizards in other countries (schools; MoM's; and habbits, such as flying carpets in the middle east).

This book would be great for any HP fan. Although small and thin, the book contains information that any HP fan would thoroughly enjoy. You would have to have seen the movie or read the books to understand and relate to the humor in this book. As a HP fan, I really thought this book was a good buy!

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" truly is an excellent companion to the Harry Potter books.
Written in J.K. Rowling's consistantly humorous style, the book is interesting, and to prevent the information from becoming boring, there are lots of funny remarks and comments supposedly "written" by Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, two of the Harry Potter books' main characters.
It is also fascinating - if you observe the book carefully, you will see how much effort has been put into it to make it look like it really DID come right out from Harry's world.

This book is a must for Harry Potter fans everywhere, but should only be read after completing the main books, as otherwise it will not be as easy to understand. Also, from purchasing this book, you will have the pleasure of knowing that you have helped a great cause, no matter where you might be.

This is a reprint by Obscurus House of Newton Artemis Fido Scamander's classic magizoological reference work. Forward by Albus Dumbledore. This particular edition is the first to be offered to the non-wizarding public.

The introduction covers the classification of magical creatures into beings, beasts, or spirits. The history, politics, and fine points of this division is examined.

Next, there is a section on the concealment of magical beasts from the non-wizarding public. This includes the establishment of safe habitats, as well as the use of disillusionment charms, memory charms, and other techniques. The activities of the Office of Misinformation in spreading false information are also examined.

The Ministry of Magic classifications of all known magical creatures from XXXXX (known wizard killer) to X (positively boring) are listed and defined.

The main body of the reference lists all known magical creatures alphabetically. The M.O.M. classification, physical description, habitat, behavior, and distribution are clearly and concisely noted for each entry. These entries are: Acromantula, Ashwinder, Augurey, Basilisk, Billywig, Bowtruckle, Bundimum, Centaur, Chimaera, Chizpurfle, Clabbert, Crup, Demiguise, Diricawl, Doxy, Dragon (all breeds), Dugbog, Erkling, Erumpent, Fairy, Fire Crab, Flobberworm, Fwooper, Ghoul, Glumbumble, Gnome, Graphorn, Griffin, Grindylow, Hippocampus, Hippogriff, Horklump, Imp, Jarvey, Jobberknoll, Kappa, Kelpie, Knarl, Kneazle, Leprechaun, Lethifold, Lobalug, Mackled Malaclaw, Manticore, Merpeople, Moke, Mooncalf, Murtlap, Niffler, Nogtail, Nundu, Occamy, Phoenix, Pixie, Plimpy, Pogrebin, Porlock, Puffskein, Quintaped, Ramora, Red Cap, Re'em, Runespoor, Salamander, Sea Serpent, Shrake, Snidget, Sphinx, Streeler, Tebo, Troll, Unicorn, Werewolf, Winged Horse, and Yeti.

I have only two questions concerning this edition: 1) why are there so few illustrations, and 2) why no Blast-Ended Skrewts?

"Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them," by Newt Scamander and J.K Rowling, is an interesting companion to the main series of novels. Telling us about seventy-five animals, this book offers more information on some of the creatures we've seen (the Acromantula and the Basilisk, for example) while offering tantalizing glimpses of what may yet come (I for one would love to see a Nundu or a Lethifold).

This book is rather abbreviated (I wish *my* textbooks were this short), and so I can only give it 4 stars. Still, it's definitely worth the small amount it costs to purchase,...