Book Review: “Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them” by Newt Scamander

Genre: Textbook

(Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Textbook)

A great textbook that is informative and interesting.  You can buy a copy here, but, for this review, I borrowed a copy of “Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them” from Harry Potter.  Interestingly, it did require a reading spell (Thank you, Hermione) before I could read the text. I am a Muggle after all.

Newton (“Newt”) Artemis Fido Scamander was born in 1897, and, as a child became fascinated with fantastic beasts (while dismembering Horklumps from the family garden).

After graduating from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Newt Scamander joined the Ministry of Magic in the “Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures” eventually ending up in the “Beast Division” where he quickly rose to prominence.

Asked by Augustus Worme of Obscurtus Books to write a textbook covering magical creatures, Scamander started traveling the world on his holidays in search of “fantastic beasts”. The textbook that resulted describes 75 beasts and two “beings” that prefer to remain in the “beast” category: Centaurs and merpeople.  Some of the other beasts covered in this textbook include the: Winged Horse, Yeti, Acromantula, Basilisk, Gnome, Dragon, Crup, Fairy, Jarvey, and Kelpie.

The book also explains how these magical creatures are protected from Muggle sightings (read the book to find out how), even though some have been seen: The Kelpie is a large serpent from Scotland, and the Yeti lives in the snow in the Himalayas (Muggles know them as the Loch Ness monster, and Abominable Snowman).

The textbook has been so successful, that is was made into a movie in 2016, with four or five more movies planned.