Book Review

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, J.K. Rowling.
Also a part of my Christmas haul were the original three companion pieces to the Harry Potter series. They are all short stories, perhaps novelettes, which supplement the world building of the HP universe so they don't take long to read. They're all meant for comedy and you don't have to have read the HP series to enjoy them. In fact, the first two were written before the series was halfway finished and the last to augment the seventh book.
The first of the set is Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. It's designed to read as a non fiction textbook describing various magical creatures, most of which don't even appear in the series. There may even be a few missing creatures since it was published in the middle of the series. The introduction is a wonderful tongue-in-cheek bio of the "author" Newt Scamander and how he became interested in the field of studying magical creatures. A few sentences in this introduction regarding an unnamed disastrous adventure when he brought a crate of creatures to America is the basis for the screenplay of the movie which I've not seen yet. But the intro also runs down the history of the magical world trying to separate beast from being in a humorous manner. Then it goes onto an alphabetical listing of the fantastic beasts of the magical world with a brief description, a Ministry rating as to how dangerous or revered they are considered, and the value of them or their eggs in the practice of potions and industry. Very informative! 😂 Also very creative as some of them are original inventions from Rowling's own imagination as well as adopted legends such as the Yeti or the Loch Ness monster molded into a part of the wizarding world via this concept. Occasionally there's an illustration which I assume is one of her own doodles that she came up with when writing this and all of the books. It's all very impressive and unique.
Like I said, it's very short and it's just a lot of light-hearted fun which makes a nice break after reading heavier material. I knew I wouldn't be disappointed with these.