Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
(AP Photo/ David Cheskin, Pool)
Utah bookstores are ready to make Harry Potter fans' Christmases merrier with a new book from author J.K. Rowling.
"The Tales of Beedle the Bard" is a collection of wizarding fairy tales referenced in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," but only one of the tales appeared in that book.
All five stories, including "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot," "The Fountain of Fair Fortune," "The Warlock's Hairy Heart," "Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump," and "The Tale of the Three Brothers" are included in the new book. The last one was written into the plot of the last Harry Potter book, ultimately helping Harry learn how to defeat the evil Lord Voldemort.
Shoppers at the Gateway couldn't wait for the book to arrive in stores. "It's nice that they can use their imagination and go to a different world. We already bought it! We bought it online," they told us.
The tales first appeared in December 2007 as a handwritten Christmas present authored and illustrated by Rowling herself to close friends. Amazon won the final copy of the original handwritten version at an auction for just short of 2 million British pounds.
J.K. Rowling is donating the royalties she would normally receive as the author to a charity she founded, the Children's High Level Group. It works to help children who are institutionalized in Eastern Europe, a cause that Rowling became interested in after reading in 2004 about the cage beds used in the care of mentally handicapped children. Rowling was horrified.
On her Web site, she writes, "The Children's Voice campaign wants to make life better for young people in care across Eastern Europe and ultimately across the whole of the modern world. The campaign is run by The Children's High Level Group (CHLG), and aims to stamp out cruelty, neglect and abuse of young people."
The Web site of J.K. Rowling can be found at www.JKRowling.com.
You can read more about the Children's High Level Group and what it is doing at www.CHLG.org.
E-mail: bbruce@ksl.com
