Quidditch— Through the Ages

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Newt Scamander
Arthur A. Levine Books

These two mini-textbooks bring you even closer to the Harry Potter world than you already are to the world of magic. Kennilworthy Whisp and Newt Scamander are pen names used by J. K. Rowling, who wrote the books to support a charity called Comic Relief. It will support children’s causes throughout the world. These two books will help you wait for Harry’s movie if you’re a Chico fan of the Potter books.

Quidditch Through the Ages looks old and worn and is labeled “Property of Hogwarts Library."Inside, it has a list of people who have checked the book out, and many of them are characters we already know. Oliver Wood, the Hogwarts team captain of the game played on flying broomsticks, checked it out first. At the bottom of the list, a note from the crabby librarian says: “If you rip, tear, bend, deface, disfigure, smear, smudge, throw, drop, or in any other manner damage, mistreat, or show lack of respect towards this book, the consequences will be as awful as it is within my power to make them.—Irma Pince, Hogwarts Librarian.”

On the first page you find comments from people like Bathilda Bagshot, author of A History of Magic, Gilderoy Lockhart, author of Magical Me, and Rita Skeeter, special correspondent for the Daily Prophet.

Ever wondered about the arrival of the Golden Snitch, the main ball in the game? Go to page 10. It talks about the evolution of the flying broomstick and ancient broom games.

On the other hand, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is owned by Harry. It is labeled “Property of: Harry Potter.” The label is slightly torn and peeling off. This was my favorite of the textbooks because of the notes from Harry, Ron and Hermione.

The first page says: “This book belongs to Harry Potter” and, in Ron’s sloppy writing, “shared by Ron Weasley because his fell apart.”

Hermione: “Why don’t you buy a new one, then?”

Ron: “Write in your own book, Hermione.”

Hermione: “You bought all those dungbombs on Saturday, you could have bought a new book instead.”

Ron: “Dungbombs Rule!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Asked to comment on these two textbooks, J.K. Rowling’s personal assistant replied that the author was too busy writing the fifth book and was unable to write back. I recommend these textbooks to anyone who enjoys J.K Rowling’s writing, because these books are comical, interesting and fun.