Well...the Harry Potter series has ended both in print and in film, so what next? Why, Tales of Beetle the Bard of course. I was Hermione Granger for Halloween this year and I wanted a copy of this book to carry around as a prop but did not get it in time and instead created my own version. What I like about this book, isn't just the tales themselves, which are surprisingly good folk and fairy tales from a wizard perspective, but that they are framed with notes from Dumbledore and Rowling. I think this book would be a great addition to a classroom or library to be used to teach kids about informational text. It uses an introduction and footnotes and Dumbledore writes about the tales like a Professor would be writing a thesis about fairy tales. It would hold the kids interest because of the Harry Potter reference but would also teach them how to read footnotes and how to analyze a tale for historical and societal implications.
Basically, the book is a collection five tales from the wizarding world of Harry Potter including the Tale of the Three Brothers that was included in the last of the Potter books. After each tale is commentary by Dumbledore and within is commentary are footnotes by himself and Rowling (obviously all of it is Rowling but play along). The commentary dissects what each tale meant in the wizarding lore and how the tales may have changed over the years as they were supposedly written in the 15th century.
Very creative and intelligent addition to the Potter world. I can imagine reading these fairy tales along side our own Grimms and Anderson.
Interest level: Grades 3-6 Reading level: Grade 6
Genre: Fantasy, Folktales
Comparable titles: Harry Potter series, Harry Potter schoolbook set, Brothers Grimm
Book Connections: informational text, fairytale/folktale unit
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