The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter
by David Colbert: The name is somewhat misleading; this is a cute mini-encyclopedia of the real mythological roots of many aspects of the Harry Potter books. While I didn’t learn a whole heck of a lot of new information, I would definitely recommend this book to any Harry Potter fan, especially younger ones. The writing is friendly without being dumbed down, the articles are short but concise, and the breadth of information is impressive. If nothing else, it instilled in me a renewed interest in mythology, and the extensive bibliography and notes provide a good jumping-off point for further research.
On note: the copy I read was written between the releases of Goblet Of Fire
and Order of the Phoenix
, and thus is it full of spoilers from the first four books and contains a sprinkling of (sometimes misguided) predictions for the latter three volumes. There is a revised version, but I don’t know if it covers the entire series. Keep that in mind when reading.
Also posted on BookCrossing.
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