You must love magical creatures and you’d be best suited if you're a Harry Potter or Fantastic Beasts fan to fully appreciate and be captivated by the magical creatures and exclusive topics that reside in this book. However, if you're a person who genuinely loves magical creatures, you’d still be intrigued. Perhaps if you have a heart like Hagrid, and could love or have compassion for any creature, you will be drawn to all of the details. There’s no guarantee if you are a fan of mythology or a Percy Jackson enthusiast, that you will like this book. I will say, however, if you are in fact, a Harry Potter fanatic, this is a must-have and you should apparate to Flourish and Blotts stat or send your owl for one. If you are a witch or wizard living in the Muggle world, you should head to the nearest Barnes and Noble or Amazon Prime it. For fanatics, this book will blow your mind. To clarify, this is a Bestiary, aka a magical creature dictionary. Hence, this doesn’t read like a normal book. Regardless, if you love creatures of all shapes, sizes, and abilities, enjoy diving right in. This book has more than double the magical creatures than what was referenced in the Harry Potter series and in Fantastic Beasts. Don’t worry, unlike the Monster Book of Monsters, this book doesn’t bite.
More than 150 of the most fascinating magical creatures are unlocked. I appreciate that the format of the book is alphabetical. It even includes a sizing chart of the creatures. The sizes range from tiny to gargantuan. Tiny is a Pixie, small is a House Elf, medium is a wizard/witch or a Centaur, large is a Griffin, huge is a Basilisk, and gargantuan is a Dragon. The sizing chart helps the reader picture the size of creatures in comparison to humans. One of my favorite comparisons on the sizing chart is humans to Dragons because the difference is almost as big as the dragon is.
Also described in detail are Unnamed Mundane Creatures, Enchanted Animal Candy, House Mascots, Known Animagi, and Their Animal Forms, Patronus Shapes, Potions Ingredients, Quidditch Team Mascots, Transfiguration Spells with Animals, and Luna Lovegood’s Magical Menagerie. Yes, the capitalization here is intentional and presented this way by the author.
Within the pages or should I say parchment of this book, readers will discover the mythological backstories of creatures they know and love and some they didn’t even know existed. MuggleNet went above and beyond giving as much detail as possible and including some details fanatics such as myself know all too well.
Inside the reader takes a journey of creatures Harry has fought such as Dementors, Dragons, Acromantulas, Basilisks, Boggarts, Giants, Trolls, Three-Headed Dogs, and countless others. To more pleasant creatures that Harry has had a pleasant interaction with include, Phoenixes, Thestrals, House Elves, Hippogriffs, Unicorns, Centaurs, and a long list of others.
A particularly intriguing section discusses house mascots. For example, Hufflepuff’s mascot is a badger. Students of Hufflepuff and the badger share delicate traits. They are soft, humble, quiet, and loyal. Though their personalities come across as insignificant and their fellow classmates from other houses disregard Hufflepuffs, they have proven that they can rise to the occasion. The book states that other than Gryffindor, Hufflepuff contributed the most fighters in the Battle of Hogwarts. Their common room and residence is located underground like a badger’s sett is.
Patronuses get their moment to shine in their own chapter called Patronuses and Their Known Shapes. In this exclusive chapter, readers will discover facts about their favorite character’s Patronus. For example, Harry taught Dumbledore’s Army how to cast the Patronus summoning charm Expecto Patronum in the Order of the Phoenix. Harry cast his first corporeal Patronus at 13 in The Prisoner of Azkaban. His Patronus takes the form of a Stag as his fathers did before him. To cast a Patronus charm, the caster must think of their most happy memory and allow it to fill them up. Their Patronus depends on how powerful the memory is. Patronus forms vary depending on a crucial trait. Some people’s Patronus reflects something about the person that they’re in love with.
The dictionary format is a popular trend right now. In fact, this particular book is the newest in a trilogy. Topping charts are other like-books, some of which are dictionaries, others are referred to as encyclopedias. For example, Marvel has a character-based encyclopedia out called Marvel Encyclopedia New Edition. Where the Harry Potter Bestiary goes into infinite detail about magical creatures, the Marvel book in comparison covers insane detail about character profiles, backstories, their superhero uniforms, etc. This type of book category definitely appeals to readers who are hardcore fans in general. If you consider yourself a super-fan, you might discover there is a dictionary of sorts that would top your holiday list if you knew it existed.
Commentaires