The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Standard Edition

Customer Reviews

• My only complaint: I wanted more  Dec 5, 2008 (135 of 148 found this helpful)

  If you love the Harry Potter series, then this is a must-have. It arrived in the mail yesterday, and I devoured it right away. And that's my only complaint: it's brevity. It's a short, quick read. But a fun one.
  And it's not simply a handful of fairy tales from the wizarding world. The commentary by Albus Dumbledore on each story was a really nice touch, in some cases even more entertaining to me than the stories themselves.
  If you were expecting a thick book that would absorb you for hours as the Harry Potter series did, I hope you're not disappointed in this book's brevity. It's still worth the price if you enjoy the series, and it supports a charitable cause.
  If you've never read the Harry Potter books (or seen the movies, I suppose) then do NOT consider this a sample of the series. You will not glean any sense of the depth, quality and, as everyone else calls it, the magic of the Harry Potter world. This book is a tasty dessert to those who've feasted on the seven-course series.

• Pretty Good  Dec 4, 2008 (69 of 81 found this helpful)

  The book was decent, in a cutesy kind of way. It is a very quick read -- somewhere around 100 pages. Being in my twenties, I think I was probably a little older than the intended audience. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed the Harry Potter series, but with one caveat: Don't get your hopes up too high. It's good and provides some insight into "The Deathly Hallows," but it's no Harry Potter.

• Send the money TO the charity instead  Dec 26, 2008 (154 of 194 found this helpful)

  Please, let me say that first and foremost, I adore (nay, worship) the Harry Potter stories.
  
  Secondly, I wish to say that I deeply admire, respect (and am quite envious of) J. K. Rowling's skill, her achievements, and the long and heroic struggle she has triumphed over to get where she is today.
  
  Thirdly, I am so very happy that Ms. Rowling has chosen to put her fame and fortune to work helping children. I have -always- said that children are the -most- vulnerable, as they have little voice, or rights of their own to protect them.
  
  Now, having said this, and with the understanding that the "Tales of Beedle the Bard" was a plot device used in HP7, And Never Intended To Be A Book In and Of Itself...
  
  
  This book really stinks.
  
  
  Flip through the reviews. First eliminate those of the rabid fans who would worship Ms. Rowling's grocery list, if it were made available for purchase. Next, ignore the "Was This review helpful" rankings, as the first group mentioned probably went though and clicked "No" on any review less than 4 stars.
  
  O.K., now look at those 3-stars & under reviews. They've said it all:
  This thing is -really- short, and the words spread out to try and "pad" it (I read it in 20 minutes); The stories might be entertaining if read to a pre-schooler, but not to anyone older; and most sadly, the stories AND commentary contain none of Ms. Rowling's great skill, nor do the parts attributed to the character Dumbledore sound even remotely like how I perceive he would have written them (Little humor, no "spark").
  
  Some negative reviews I chose to discount involve either criticisms of it being "Dark" or "Scary", and "Inappropriate for young children" (reviews written without taking into consideration how dark -most- fairy-tales are, and the fact that kids today are far too wise (on average) to be frightened by this book), or complaints of rushing something out in the name of capitalism.
  
  Point is, the book sales go to a very worthy charity, AND this book was only intended as a "cute" gift Ms. Rowling made for 6 of her friends, with the 7th being auctioned off for charity.
  
  And on THAT note, I wish to recommend that instead of buying this not-very-good-at-all book, you should look into making a donation directly TO the charity that the "Net Proceeds" would have gone to, namely: The Children's High Level Group, which you can find using any good internet search engine. This way 100% of the $12.99 goes to a worthy cause.
  

• Physical Quality and Description of Collector's Edition  Dec 6, 2008 (20 of 23 found this helpful)

  I was thrilled on Thursday to have received in the mail my copy of the collector's edition of JK Rowling's Tales of Beedle the Bard. It was shipped well in a doubled up cardboard box that fit it perfectly (actually had the name of the book on the box, so it was made specifically to ship this book. When you open it, it's in a thin white cardboard cover that says "this side up"
  
  When you slip it out of that cover, you see a wonderful fake leather "book" that is about 10 1/4 x 12 1/4 x 2 3/4 inches. The binding has the name, author and small drawing in gold lettering; the front cover is the name, author and decorative drawn border pressed into the faux leather. The back cover has part of the same drawing pressed in.
  
  When you open it up, you find that it's a case for the actual book that is imbedded into the middle, covered in a lovely red velvet bag with JK Rowling's signature embroidered in gold. The draw strings are also gold. On the left side there is a folder with Collector's Edition Prints. They are beautiful, and can either be framed, or kept tucked away in this case.
  
  The actual book it's self is great quality. Dark brown, with silver decorative pieces on top each piece having emerald colored stones in them. This includes the side clasp. There is also an emerald colored ribbon bookmark.
  
  The introduction is a straight copied from JK's original work that Amazon purchased. If you're not the best with handwriting, some words can be a little hard to read. After the intro, it switches to a very Harry potter/magic like font that works well with telling the stories. All together with the stories, Dumbledore's comments, and JK's comments, it took me about an hour to read straight through.
  
  This edition was worth every penny for someone who really loves Harry Potter, and wants quality.

• The Collectors Edition is a Must Have  Dec 4, 2008 (38 of 48 found this helpful)

  A short while ago I opened my door to find a large package from Amazon: I could not believe it was actually my copy of The Collectors Edition of the Tales of Beedle the Bard! While I first ordered this a while ago, there was a problem with my credit card and I had to reorder, so I did not think I would get this book at all, much less on the relealse date! Thank you Amazon, I don't know how you do it!
  
  The book is an absolutely must have for every Harry Potter fan. I had already read the tales themselves when I opened this volume, and they are truly delightful and full of wonderful messages for our children (and for all the magic lovers among us). The stories aside, this edition is truly beautiful and a pleasure to hold in one's hand. There are some wonderful and unique features to it -- the set of reprints is just beautiful; the small book inside the velvet bag inside the larger volume makes you feel like you are opening a treasure and indeed you are!
  
  I bought this volume for my son for a Christmas present, but now I'm thinking, maybe I will need another one! It is well worth the money to own such a special item, and it makes it that much greater that a portion of the proceeds goes to Ms. Rowling's incredible charity. I know the holidays are going to be very special in my house. Thank you Ms. Rowling, for yet another gift to your legions of fans.