As Close to New Harry Potter as You’ll Get

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Cover of Beedle the Bard

Looking for another Harry Potter fix? Sadly the only new official Potter you’ll get is on-screen this November, but you can get your hands on some more literature from super-écrivaine J.K. Rowling (or at least get on the waiting list).  December 4th, 2008 (just in time for the Holiday rush) marks the date of the release of Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a book of wizarding tales all handwritten and illustrated by Ms. Rowling. True Potter fans will recall The Bard’s role in the seventh book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; Dumbledore leaves Hermione the book, which give Harry clues that help him defeat Voldemort.  The only tale out of five revealed in The Deathly Hallows was the Tale of the Three Brothers; the others will be revealed in the book’s release this winter. Formerly only seven in existence, Amazon dished out the healthy sum of approximately $4 million dollars (£1.95 million) at Sotheby’s last year for one of the charitable copies. Announced today in celebration of Harry Potter’s birthday (July 31st), editions of the book available to (and afforable by) the public will be published by Rowling’s non-profit, the Children’s High Level Group (CHLG). As for the different editions of the book, the CHLG Press Office announced that they will: 

Title Page of Beedle the Bard

 “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.”

All net proceeds from sales of the book, which are expected to be roughly $8 million (£4 million), will go straight to the CHLG, which focuses on the education, health, and welfare of children in Europe. Check out the full press release about the book by the CHLG. For more information on CHLG, visit their website at: http://www.chlg.org/

Reserve your copy of Tales of Beedle the Bard at Amazon.

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