Book #12

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by JK Rowling

A copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them resides in almost every wizarding household in the country. Now Muggles too have the chance to discover where the Quintaped lives, what the Puffskein eats and why it is best not to leave milk out for a Knarl.

This is a wonderful reference book describing the magical creatures of the wizarding world. As always with JK, it's filled with creativity, wonder, and sheer imagination.

I loved reading details of the creatures I'm familiar with from the Harry Potter books, but most of all loved learning about the ones I'd never heard of. I particularly enjoyed the idea of the Loch Ness monster being a very clever kelpie who, despite preferring the shape of a large sea creature, quickly turns into an otter at the first sight of human interest.

Most interesting of all were the introductory explanations on how the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures operates; their laws, procedures, classifications, and ways of concealing the beasts from Muggles, were fascinating. I would've liked more information like this, but it wasn't to be from such a short book. Hopefully the upcoming film will quench my thirst for more explanations on the wizarding world's control methods.

Each of the beasts are described in an almost loving fashion by Scamander (or JK if we want to ruin the illusion), and classified into ranks based on the danger they pose to wizards and Muggles alike, alongside their standing in either beast, being, or spirit category. I was drawn to these animals as I'm drawn to men - the dangerous ones were the best.

Where the creatures originate from, which magical potions or objects can be made from their venom, skin, or other body parts, and their individual characteristics are all covered in short bursts of detail.

Another volume of pure magic from JK; I'm excited now to see Newt on the big screen!