Rating: 
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: This attractive little book is a wonderful resource for every fan of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. It takes the form of an encyclopedia of useful knowledge, giving you the information you need on such diverse things as cauldrons, grindylows, and petrifaction. Everything is here from amulets to zombies! The information itself it presented in an easy-to-read form, which makes this book perfect for readers young and old.My twelve-year-old daughter is a huge fan of Harry Potter, and selected this book herself. She really loves the pictures and found the information quite easy to understand. She loves this book and highly recommends it to you, and so do I!
Rating:
Summary: Great HP info
Review: Even though this book is not writen by J.K. Rowlings it is a must for all Harry Potter collections it has facinating infor about the names of charecters, the subjects taught at Hogwarts what the Spell incatations mean and info on many mythical and other intresting magical facts it far out shines all the other guide books I've read.
Rating: 
Summary: So that's what that means!
Review: Reading this book has helped me understand what the magical creatures and things of Harry Potter's world are and were. It has got me interested in other Harry Potter prediction and explaination books.
Rating:
Summary: Very educational.
Review: I found this book was educational and good for some background infromation on Harry's world. However I feel that it didn't relate to the books themselfs.
If you want to learn more about the history behind the magic then this book is perfect.
Rating:
Summary: A Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter
Review: this was a very informative book.....all HP fans should get it!i loved learning about the different magical creatures,divinitation,etc.even if u r not a Harry Potter fan this book is very entertaining and interesting!
Rating:
Summary: Just the facts mam
Review: This book covers many myths and magical beings associated with the Harry Potter saga. In general it is laid out in alphabetical order. And tackles everything from "Amulet" to "Zombie"
Yes I know we already know about werewolves and zombies from old movies like "My Mom's a Werewolf" asin: 6305538395 and "Weekend at Bernie's II" asin: B00005QT9P. But some creatures never make it to the big screen. So I went in search of ones that I had read about in other literature to see how accurate the book is. One sure test was on Veela. They had that nailed to a tee. Then what about a source to prove it was just not off the top of compiler's head. Sure enough there is a page-by page index and references to the source of information.
The book has sketches where appropriate and a fair bibliography.
Harry is more interesting if you know the background to what he is up against.
Rating:
Summary: A Helpful Reference for the Muggle
Review: This is a reference book, not a page turner, but it does what its meant to do fairly well, even if its missing a few things. I especially enjoyed learning the roots of arithmancy and the life and times of Nicholas Flamel. I wonder if there will be an update for the rest of the books in the series?
Rating:
Summary: An interesting reference book for Potter fans
Review: While this book does offer a lot of good source material on subjects touched upon in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potters novels (one through four, at the time this book was written), it is by no means an indispensable addition to the Pottermaniac's personal library. The references to events and personages in the Harry Potter books are rather haphazard, and in many cases it is apparent that the Potter link is primarily a gimmick designed to sell more books. This is not necessarily a bad thing, though, because there is information in this book I had not encountered elsewhere, and it does reinforce one's impressive appraisal of the fiber of actual legendry that went into the creation of Rowling's novels. This book offers a concise encyclopedia of magical subjects, creatures, and legends. Much of the material will be familiar to anyone well-read, yet there are aspects to some of even the most familiar of legends, such as that of the werewolf or vampire, that I was unaware of; this consisted for the most part of the different ideas held by different cultures. What was evil to a European of the Middle Ages was sometimes a portent of good to an inhabitant of China or India, for example. Perhaps the most interesting items discussed in these pages are the more obscure legends of unfamiliar beings which I had never heard of before and which I had assumed J.K. Rowling had invented: e.g., grundylows, kappas, and redcaps. The authors, a professional magician and his academic daughter, have written a book that can easily be read by laymen in the ways of magic. The concise, far from elaborate discussions of each topic can be easily understood by young readers obsessed with Harry Potter, making it a welcome, interesting, entertainingly informative read that does not so much add to the legendry created by J.K. Rowling as it does highlight the sturdiness of the foundation upon which her magical adventure stories are built.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I found this book a wonderful companion to the Harry Potter books, not only because it explained a lot about elements of the books that otherwise would have been underappreciated, but because it introduced me to elements of mythology that I was unaware of and made me more interested in mythology in general. An excellent read.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: This is a fascinating read for all of those loyal Harry Potter fans! Only read this book if you have finished with the first four Harry Potter books, as it may give away plot details. This is an absolutely wonderful book to read if you are currently awaiting the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix. It is so detailed in all the mythical history behind the Harry Potter series and really makes you appreciate all the research that goes into it. I would recomend this book for children 11 and over and for people who are not very religeous.
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