Book Review: TheTales of Beedle The Bard
Title of the Book: The Tales of Beedle The Bard
Author: J.K. Rowling
Genre: Fantasy
Intended Audience: Children to Young Adult; maybe even Adult if you're feeling pretty nostalgic and if you really love Harry Potter like I do.
Theme:
Score: 5
There are many themes in The Tales of Beedle the Bard, mostly because it is (as the title implies) a collection of assorted tales. The central theme behind the Harry Potter series is, as stated explicitly by Rowling herself, death. This particular theme manages to subtly reappear throughout the collection, almost increasing in prominence with the passing of every tale to the next. It's fitting, then, that Rowling saved The Tale of The Three Brothers for the very last, as I especially feel it has the most to do with death. The message Rowling had intended in regards to death rings quite clearly, almost to the point where you'd have to be quite dull to miss it.
As for the remaining themes, I found that they were very typical for what would be the wizarding book of children's fairy tales. Hard Work, Humbleness, Confidence, and moral actions are emphasized in this book.
I personally got my own personal themes from this book too. There's a large sense of the characters in the novel being "responsible for the consequences and rewards caused by their magic" as well as an emphasis on putting your fate in your own hands.
If you can't find at least one theme in this book, then you obviously aren't reading it right.
Plot:
Score: 4
Considering that the book is a telling of five different tales, it stands to say that The Tales of Beedle The Bard has quite a bit of plot in it. The stories are pretty short too, which makes it easy not to get lost or bored with anything. One one hand, I was actually a little bit disappointed in just how short these stories were, but I had to remind myself that this was a book that was supposed to be for wizarding parents to read to their little children. Rowling has definitely embodied that aspect to a T. I'm actually considering giving this book to my younger brother to read, and were I to have children then I would definitely read this to them along with a nicer version of the Grimm Fairytales.
Characters:
Score: 3
This is one of the areas where the book sort of fell flat for me. I get it, though, because the stories are short you don't really have a lot of time to get invested in the characters as much as in the other Harry Potter books. The character that most jumped out at me was probably Babbity Rabbity because of her sheer cunning. Some of the characters don't even get names, but then again, there were also a few characters in traditional fairy tales that remained nameless.
There was a particular instance in The Fountain Of Fair Fortune where characters actually received names and I actually got confused simply because I couldn't discern which of the three witches introduced was which. It didn't help at all that the three witches had names that all started and ended with A.
Of course, Dumbledore's presence was felt in The Tales of Beedle The Bard, considering he put his own annotations into the tales. You'll even catch snippet references of some characters in the Harry Potter series in there, which was a welcome treat for me.
Dialogue:
Score: 4
You know, there wasn't a whole lot of dialogue in The Tales of Beedle The Bard since it was mostly descriptions, but the small amount of dialogue that was peppered in there worked reasonably well for the situation. It wasn't heart-wrenchingly emotional stuff, mind you, but it was functional and it was true to the time period of these tales.
Setting/Circumstance:
Score: 3
I think this was another of the major downfalls of the book, but this is also true of fairytales in general, so I was a little bit lenient in my judgement. Turn away from The Tales of Beedle The Bard if you're looking for some picturesque description of castles and European countrysides.
The Good:
I was extremely worried that I was going to read this book and feel like it was a stranger to the Harry Potter series, but instead I felt myself cherishing the world of Harry Potter so much more because of them. I loved the good sampling of morals in each and every tale, although my favorite would have to be The Warlock's Hairy Heart and The Tale of the Three Brothers. You could literally pass this book off to a younger sibling if you wanted, or leave it to yourself to enjoy in all your lovely nostalgic glee. I'm pretty sure everyone could enjoy the contents in these pages if they chose to do so.
The Bad and The Ugly:
It's pretty damn short, almost to the point of not being wroth the $13.00 Us dollars that I paid for it. I love Harry Potter, I really do, but I was really discouraged to see that there wasn't more content; especially when I saw the way that the tales were written. I wanted more, but the book was over. I felt that we could have done a little bit less with Dumbledore's notes (as much as I loved them) in favor of more wizarding tales, but I applaud Rowling on her effort.
One of the major selling points to me, though, was that the net proceeds from the sales go to The Children's High Level Group I'm a poor Bohemian college musician myself, but at the same time, I figured it was at least worth it to buy this little book (which I thoroughly enjoyed in any case) so that I could do a small ounce of good in the world.
Final Grading - 3.8
A score around 4:
This book was very good, despite the occasional moment of weakness that detracted me from the magic of the story. A score of four usually means that the book was very good and was almost close to amazing quality, but there were a few aspects of the novel that prevented the book from attaining a higher score.
Final Comments: I'd say go buy it if you're a really big buff Harry Potter nerd like I am, but you'd probably be just fine borrowing it from a friend. Still, I once again call to attention the good cause attached to this book, so I would suggest buying it if you really do have the capability to do so.
Disclaimer: These reviews are just my own personal opinions of the books. You might think differently and that's all fine and dandy, but don't persecute me for having my own opinion. My opinion to you shouldn't matter too much. It's all good if you think that there's some merit to my words, but I'm fine if you think that my opinion is worth no more than dog droppings. I just ask that you remain respectful. Life's way too short to go causing drama on the Internet.
Author: J.K. Rowling
Genre: Fantasy
Intended Audience: Children to Young Adult; maybe even Adult if you're feeling pretty nostalgic and if you really love Harry Potter like I do.
Theme:
Score: 5
There are many themes in The Tales of Beedle the Bard, mostly because it is (as the title implies) a collection of assorted tales. The central theme behind the Harry Potter series is, as stated explicitly by Rowling herself, death. This particular theme manages to subtly reappear throughout the collection, almost increasing in prominence with the passing of every tale to the next. It's fitting, then, that Rowling saved The Tale of The Three Brothers for the very last, as I especially feel it has the most to do with death. The message Rowling had intended in regards to death rings quite clearly, almost to the point where you'd have to be quite dull to miss it.
As for the remaining themes, I found that they were very typical for what would be the wizarding book of children's fairy tales. Hard Work, Humbleness, Confidence, and moral actions are emphasized in this book.
I personally got my own personal themes from this book too. There's a large sense of the characters in the novel being "responsible for the consequences and rewards caused by their magic" as well as an emphasis on putting your fate in your own hands.
If you can't find at least one theme in this book, then you obviously aren't reading it right.
Plot:
Score: 4
Considering that the book is a telling of five different tales, it stands to say that The Tales of Beedle The Bard has quite a bit of plot in it. The stories are pretty short too, which makes it easy not to get lost or bored with anything. One one hand, I was actually a little bit disappointed in just how short these stories were, but I had to remind myself that this was a book that was supposed to be for wizarding parents to read to their little children. Rowling has definitely embodied that aspect to a T. I'm actually considering giving this book to my younger brother to read, and were I to have children then I would definitely read this to them along with a nicer version of the Grimm Fairytales.
Characters:
Score: 3
This is one of the areas where the book sort of fell flat for me. I get it, though, because the stories are short you don't really have a lot of time to get invested in the characters as much as in the other Harry Potter books. The character that most jumped out at me was probably Babbity Rabbity because of her sheer cunning. Some of the characters don't even get names, but then again, there were also a few characters in traditional fairy tales that remained nameless.
There was a particular instance in The Fountain Of Fair Fortune where characters actually received names and I actually got confused simply because I couldn't discern which of the three witches introduced was which. It didn't help at all that the three witches had names that all started and ended with A.
Of course, Dumbledore's presence was felt in The Tales of Beedle The Bard, considering he put his own annotations into the tales. You'll even catch snippet references of some characters in the Harry Potter series in there, which was a welcome treat for me.
Dialogue:
Score: 4
You know, there wasn't a whole lot of dialogue in The Tales of Beedle The Bard since it was mostly descriptions, but the small amount of dialogue that was peppered in there worked reasonably well for the situation. It wasn't heart-wrenchingly emotional stuff, mind you, but it was functional and it was true to the time period of these tales.
Setting/Circumstance:
Score: 3
I think this was another of the major downfalls of the book, but this is also true of fairytales in general, so I was a little bit lenient in my judgement. Turn away from The Tales of Beedle The Bard if you're looking for some picturesque description of castles and European countrysides.
The Good:
I was extremely worried that I was going to read this book and feel like it was a stranger to the Harry Potter series, but instead I felt myself cherishing the world of Harry Potter so much more because of them. I loved the good sampling of morals in each and every tale, although my favorite would have to be The Warlock's Hairy Heart and The Tale of the Three Brothers. You could literally pass this book off to a younger sibling if you wanted, or leave it to yourself to enjoy in all your lovely nostalgic glee. I'm pretty sure everyone could enjoy the contents in these pages if they chose to do so.
The Bad and The Ugly:
It's pretty damn short, almost to the point of not being wroth the $13.00 Us dollars that I paid for it. I love Harry Potter, I really do, but I was really discouraged to see that there wasn't more content; especially when I saw the way that the tales were written. I wanted more, but the book was over. I felt that we could have done a little bit less with Dumbledore's notes (as much as I loved them) in favor of more wizarding tales, but I applaud Rowling on her effort.
One of the major selling points to me, though, was that the net proceeds from the sales go to The Children's High Level Group I'm a poor Bohemian college musician myself, but at the same time, I figured it was at least worth it to buy this little book (which I thoroughly enjoyed in any case) so that I could do a small ounce of good in the world.
Final Grading - 3.8
A score around 4:
This book was very good, despite the occasional moment of weakness that detracted me from the magic of the story. A score of four usually means that the book was very good and was almost close to amazing quality, but there were a few aspects of the novel that prevented the book from attaining a higher score.
Final Comments: I'd say go buy it if you're a really big buff Harry Potter nerd like I am, but you'd probably be just fine borrowing it from a friend. Still, I once again call to attention the good cause attached to this book, so I would suggest buying it if you really do have the capability to do so.
Disclaimer: These reviews are just my own personal opinions of the books. You might think differently and that's all fine and dandy, but don't persecute me for having my own opinion. My opinion to you shouldn't matter too much. It's all good if you think that there's some merit to my words, but I'm fine if you think that my opinion is worth no more than dog droppings. I just ask that you remain respectful. Life's way too short to go causing drama on the Internet.