Awaiting Dec. 4: New Potter Book, Tales of Beedle the Bard

I just finished reading the seventh book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, concluding a multi-month odyssey. (I started the series this spring at the prodding of my twin 10-year-olds.)

Now, just in time for Christmas, a new Potter book is coming out on Dec. 4, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a book that played a key role in Deathly Hallows after renowned Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore left it to Hermione Granger.

The Scholastic web site describes the forthcoming collection of wizard tales this way:

"Now, thanks to Hermione Granger’s new translation from the ancient runes, we present this stunning edition with an introduction, notes, and illustrations by J. K. Rowling, and extensive commentary by Albus Dumbledore . . . Professor Dumbledore’s commentary — apparently written some eighteen months before his death — reveals not just his vast knowledge of Wizarding lore, but also more of his personal qualities: his sense of humor, his courage, his pride in his abilities, and his hard-won wisdom. Names familiar from the Harry Potter novels sprinkle the pages, including Aberforth Dumbledore, Lucius Malfoy and his forebears, and Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington (or 'Nearly Headless Nick), as well as other professors at Hogwarts and the past owners of the Elder Wand."

While I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that Beedle won't be a grave let-down after the drama that was the Deathly Hallows, I'm trying to devise a Dec. 4 game plan: Buy the book without telling the kids, read it and then give one, pre-read copy to share, or just bring home two, let the twins read them immediately -- as I'm sure many of their classmates will do --and just wait to read it when they've finished? Decisions, decisions.

Image credit: Scholastic.