Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Hogwarts Library)

by Newt Scamander and J.K. Rowling

As featured in the first year set texts reading list in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is an extensive introduction to the magical beasts that exist in the magical, non-Muggle world. Some of the animals featured in the A-Z you will have already met in the existing Harry Potter books: for example Hippogriff, Flobberworm, Kappa - others you certainly won't: read on to find out exactly what a Chizpurfle is, or why one should always beware of the sinister Lethifold ...As Albus Dumbledore says in his introduction, this set text book by Newt Scamander has given the perfect grounding to many a Hogwarts student. It will be helpful to all Muggles out there too ...On reading the book you will also find that Harry, Ron and (in one instance) Hermione - couldn't resist grafittiing the book, and adding their own personal hand-written opinions.

• ISBN10: 1408803011
• ISBN13: 9781408803011
• Publish Date: 6 July 2009 (first published 1 March 2001)
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Out of Print: 4 August 2016
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 128
• Language: English
• URL: http://bloomsbury.com/Trade/

Reviews

[nora]

I might have liked this had I read it at the height of my Harry Potter obsession - but probably not. Because this reads like a list of made-up (and thus pointless) "facts", and there's no story around it to make it worthwhile.

[kiracanread]

Quite frankly, a bit of a waste of time. Just a long list of fictional creatures. Really unnecessary.

[sa090]

I read this one a looooooong time ago and I’m glad that I got the chance to reread it in a Harry Potter themed readathon as well. This filled the prompt for the E grade of Potions, read a book in your house’s colour.

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The book is basically an encyclopedia of monsters, I enjoyed reading more about the creatures the first time and I enjoyed it even more this second time because the creatures are easier to imagine after the series of movies related to it came out. Things like the Niffler and the Demiguise for instance, alongside the more dangerous ones like the Nobu. Honestly made me want to go watch the movies again which I think I will very very soon, for now I just added a the sixth book’s reread to my September TBR :)

There is really not much to say about the monsters themselves, but I do appreciate that J. K. Rowling took inspirations from real legends or myths like the Japanese Kappa and the Loch Ness monster where I was pretty amused by the latter’s section. I did wish to see the Lethifold more than anything else tbh, maybe a manticore would be fun as well, but yeah, the Lethifold in action might be fun although I don’t think a battle against it would be all that heavy on the action.

I especially enjoyed the added comments by Harry and his friends and more importantly the brief bits of history that led to the qualifications and specification of Beasts. Newt Scamander getting kicked out of Hogwarts, only to write a book that ends up being a must read in every household AND teaching material in the school he got kicked out of is extremely badass in my opinion.

Final rating: 4/5

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Actual rating: 1.5 stars

I hear that the newer editions of this book have more illustrations and detail, and that's awesome. I'm reading the original for-charity release, so my experience was a little different.

I'm just... completely disinterested in this book. I like the other two Hogwarts Library books a lot, but Fantastic Beasts reads like a textbook and I was utterly bored. I've actually lowered the score from my previous one when I was a kid. A lot of these entries are very vague and unhelpful, especially on the magical creatures that Rowling pulled from mythology. Many of the entries are littered with anecdotes, some of which are interesting, but many of which are not.

Additionally, the book has Ron and Harry's scribblings in it. If they were more frequent, this could have been interesting, but they're only a couple of snide comments about Hagrid and some Chudley Cannons graffiti that really didn't add anything to the enjoyment of the book.

I support the original publishing of the book, because Rowling's royalties were donated to charity, but honestly, if you're looking for a compendium of magical beasts... there are more interesting, more detailed ones out there.
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Original Rating: 3 Stars

[MurderByDeath]

A fabulously fun A to Z of the beasts in the Harry Potter world.  The book starts with an introduction by Newt Scamander (the nominal author) that discusses the purpose of the book, along with a brief history of muggle/wizard/beat relations and the evolution of which magical creatures is deemed a beast and which beings.  Each beast's entry includes a danger rating, it's primary locals, and a description.   Total catnip for a Harry Potter fan; there are a few illustrations, but generally the author and publisher missed a golden opportunity to make this book amazing.  Hopefully a fully illustrated edition will appear sometime in the future.

[inlibrisveritas]

I really enjoyed this expanded and illustrated version of Fantastic Beasts. I will say I wish that they would have included far more in here since it doesn't show every beast we know to exist thus far. Some of the illustrations I really liked and others were kind of misleading which is a bit distracting. For example, one beast is said to be the size of a large dog, but the image shows it towering over a town. I do appreciate the artist's rendition of the some of the animals, but it is a bit confusing if you already know what they supposedly look like.

I think if you were trying to pick between the original textbook version and this one (why not get both?) I would say this one is worth the extra price. It's far more interesting to flip through and retains some re-read value.

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

4.5★ Audiobook You know how eating something sweet is a delightful but short-lived treat for your tastebuds? Listening to the audiobook of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was a similarly delightful but short-lived treat for my ears.

After seeing that it was only one hour and 40 minutes long, I almost didn’t buy it, especially because I read the original Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them when it was first published in 2001. But the temptation of having Eddie Redmayne read to me for a period of time (no matter how short) was too much to bear. I gave in, paid the $10 and immediately thanked myself after pressing play.

Another contributing factor in my decision to purchase this audiobook was my new-found love for the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them film, starring Eddie Redmayne. Not to go off on a tangent, but I actually think I enjoyed that film more than all of the other Harry Potter movies. Everything in it was new to me because it wasn’t based on a pre-existing novel, unlike the Harry Potter movies. There is a screenplay of the movie available for purchase, with the same title and written by J.K. Rowling, but it isn’t yet available on audiobook (*fingers crossed*).

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is formatted as a Hogwarts textbook. Hogwarts is the wizarding school Harry Potter attends in Rowling’s seven Harry Potter novels. It alphabetically lists magical creatures and gives a brief description of each of them. In that respect, it wasn’t very different from the originally published version. New to this edition, was an extended forward and more in-depth background information about wizarding legislation regarding magical creatures. I found those bits of history most interesting.

This newest addition was also updated with a few magical creatures who were not included in the original publication, but were featured in the recent film. It was particularly interesting to learn about the Horned Serpent, Thunderbird and Wampus, whom provide three of the four house names for Ilvermorny (the North American wizarding school). This information corresponds with fairly recent information given on Pottermore regarding Ilvermorny and the American wizarding community.

One of my favorite things about this book is the lengths to which Rowling went to preserve the reader’s suspension of disbelief. For a prime example, take a look at Audible’s page for this title. Newt Scamander is credited as the author (alongside Rowling). Within the book, there is an even more consistent effort to represent it as a work of the wizarding world. It is written as if the reader is part of that world and it’s assumed that we are all in on the secret. This is done with unwavering aplomb and gives the reader the wonderful feeling of “being in on” something very special (almost like an inside joke).

The only reason I’m not giving Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them five stars is because I greedily wish there had been more of it. The beast descriptions seemed a little on the short side, especially considering the entire audiobook only ran for 100 minutes. I’m still grateful that this edition was expanded from the original, but I’m a greedy and selfish Potterhead who always wants more from Rowling.

Narration review: Before I begin fangirling over Eddie Redmayne, let me mention that there were sound effects. So many sound effects. I laid down one night listening to this, closed my eyes and the material absolutely came alive inside my head. This type of audiobook is fuel for an active imagination. Coupled with the beasts’ vivid descriptions, the sound effects created a movie in my mind.

Because it is a work of fiction being masqueraded as a work of nonfiction, this type of book didn’t require Eddie to provide vocal distinction between characters. However, that’s not to say that there wasn’t a character present. The sheer brilliance of having Eddie Redmayne, who portrays Newt Scamander in the film, read out loud Newt’s best-selling work blows my mind. That’s some intricate mind manipulation right there. To feel the full impact of it, I suggest watching the movie before listening to this audiobook (to cement the Eddie = Newt association in your brain). And I definitely recommend listening to the audiobook. Although, it would be neat if you had the print version to follow along with while listening. Layers upon layers of awesomeness. ♣︎

[KitsuneBae]

4 stars for the screenplay
4.5 stars for the movie

You'd really know it if it's written by JK Rowling.

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

I had so been looking forward to a new Harry Potter book to tide myself over until Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and the adaptation of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Unfortunately, my expectations were not met in this small volume. Despite, Albus Dumbledore's introduction and Harry's notes scrawled in the margins it read like it was advertised -- a textbook. The descriptions of said creatures were small, only a few sentences each and were typically already the description provided in the Harry Potter series. I would have prefered a longer book with more in-depth summary of let's say a Crumple-Horned Snorkack or a hippogriff but instead only got mediocre mentions.

Harry Potter's additions were cute and a throwback to the seven books, mainly involving Hagrid, but they were few and far between and began to see why Harry was doodling in his book rather than paying attention. Personally, I would have found The Monster Book of Monsters much more interesting as unlike Fantastic Beasts, it would have had some bite to it.

[Sarah Says]

Short Cute Read :-) a must for any devoted Harry Fan.