2009 - Post #1: The Tales of Beedle the Bard
My first book of 2009 is J.K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which I received for Christmas.
I honestly don't have much to say about it, but because what I DO have to say is spoilery, here is my obligatory spoiler space. If you haven't read the book yet and don't want to be spoiled, don't read any further in this post!
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I think my favorite story of the bunch was "The Fountain of Fair Fortune", because it seemed to have the happiest ending, and I am nothing if not a total girl. "The Warlock's Hairy Heart" was downright creepy (I could not even imagine telling my child this story!), while "Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump" was pretty funny and just goes to show what total misconceptions the Muggles in JKR's world had about their Wizarding brethren.
One thing that annoyed me was that JKR continued her anti-Slytherin campaign in this book by bringing up Draco Malfoy's ancestors (and father) and their anti-Muggle viewpoints. Dumbledore's commentary was occasionally funny and witty (like the character himself) but I really found the comments about Draco's father to be rather ridiculous at this point, especially the line about how Dumbledore set out to end Lucius' reign as "Lord Voldemort's Favorite Death Eater". Whatever.
I did find it interesting that Dumbledore's commentary lends one to believe that Dumbledore didn't believe that the "Tale of the Three Brothers" was factual, when, if you read Deathly Hallows, you know that it was. This was obviously prior to Dumbledore's encounter with the Resurrection Stone, but it also means that he wasn't aware - or didn't believe - that he was the current master of the Elder Wand. Makes you realize just how fallible Dumbledore was, I suppose, even though he had several occasions where he noted how clever he was.
All in all this was a nice edition to the HP world, although I, personally, would not have told a few of these stories to my impressionable young children until they were much older. :-P
Comments
Another thing to remember is that the 7 books were told from Harry's point of view, so I'd hardly think that Dumbledore's commentary in Beedle the Bard would have also been told from the bias of Harry's lens on reality.
And yes, I think the commentary was definitely all Dumbledore. Kind of an interesting look at just how smart and witty he thought he was, though.