A Bard's Tales

If you've got around 30-60 minutes to kill, you might find The Tales of Beedle the Bard a good way to do it. It's a new book by J.K. Rowling, a series of wizard fairy tales from the word of Harry Potter.

For those whose memories go back a year, this is the same book that, in hand-written "limited edition" form, sold for over $60,000. I expect if you're the guy who bought it, you're pissed right now. Except that all the money you paid went to charity, as are all the proceeds now coming from the mass market editions, so you can't actually express to anyone that you are pissed without appearing a world class schmuck. Poor guy.

Anyway, the book. It contains five short tales, each followed with commentary "written by Dumbledore" (and, in a few cases, annotated by Rowling writing in her own voice and not a character's). And as I mentioned, you can read the whole thing cover to cover in under an hour. This should not in any way be looked on as "more Harry Potter." This is J.K. Rowling trying her hand at the tales of Peter Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh, or Aesop.

Though none of the stories are outstanding, they are entertaining enough when taken in their proper context. Rowling continues her stance that children's stories need not be dumbed down for children (and even uses Dumbledore's commentary to drive the point home directly). There are some advanced morals being taught in one or two cases, very grisly acts depicted in one of the tales, and a sprinkling here and there of words even I had to look up in the dictionary.

The book is capped by the full telling of "The Tale of the Three Brothers," as referenced in Harry Potter in the Deathly Hallows. Here, the book crosses slightly into "prequel" territory, which you may take as a good or a bad thing. Dumbledore's commentary on the story informs on the events of the final two books -- not in any kind of revelatory way that makes you reevaluate them, but more in a winking, fun sort of way that makes you fondly remember the series.

This is by no means "must read" material, but for the small investment of time it takes, and given that the money goes to a children's charity, it's hard to go wrong here. I rate it a B.

But then, if you're a Harry Potter fan, you've probably picked it up already.