Book Reviews

In celebration of Harry Potter's birthday, the Children's High Level Group (CHLG), the English charity co-founded by J K Rowling and Emma Nicholson MEP to help children suffering in institutions, announces that it is to publish The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

Fans around the world have been clamouring to read the wizarding fairy tales - created, handwritten and illustrated by J K Rowling - since last December, when Amazon famously bid £1.95 million / $4 million for the charity copy, one of only seven in existence, at Sotheby's in London.

The Children's High Level Group will publish three editions of the book, all in the English language, to be printed and distributed by Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Amazon. The Bloomsbury and Scholastic editions (£6.99 / $12.99) will feature additional commentary on each fairy tale from Professor Dumbledore and an introduction by J K Rowling. Amazon will produce up to a maximum of 100,000 Collector's Edition copies (£50 / $100), which will aim to closely replicate the look and feel of the original 'Beedle'. All editions will go on sale on Thursday 4 December 2008.

J K Rowling says: "There was understandable disappointment among Harry Potter fans when only one copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard was offered to the public last December. I am therefore delighted to announce that, thanks to the generous support of Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Amazon (who bought the handwritten copy at auction) - and with the blessing of the wonderful people who own the other six original books - The Tales of Beedle the Bard will now be widely available to all Harry Potter fans. Royalties will be donated to the Children's High Level Group, to benefit institutionalised children in desperate need of a voice. The new edition will include the Tales themselves, translated from the original runes by Hermione Granger, and with illustrations by me, but also notes by Professor Albus Dumbledore, which appear by generous permission of the Hogwarts Headmasters' Archive."

Containing clues that were to prove crucial to Harry Potter's final mission to destroy Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes, The Tales of Beedle the Bard is the volume of five wizarding fairy tales left to Hermione Granger by Albus Dumbledore in the seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Only one - The Tale of the Three Brothers - is recounted in the book. In The Tales of Beedle the Bard, the four remaining stories are revealed for the very first time.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard Collectors Edition will fly off the shelves and it will make a great Christmas present for fans and investors alike.

Make sure you pre-order it from amazon.co.uk here!

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