My tale preferences goes as follows:

1. The Fountain of Fair Fortune (Also an alliteration!)
2. The Warlock's Harry Heart
3. The Tale of Three Brothers
4. Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump
5. The Wizard and the Hoping Pot

Wow that was hard. Many of these are tied but I forced myself to give them all a place. The only ones I can say for certain are the first and the last ones. The Wizard and the Hopping Pot did not impress me and wasn't the strongest start. The Fountain of Fair Fortune reminded me of Disney's and Grimm's and Christian's stories that I loved as a kid. Pure, sweet nostalgia!

My first thought after reading this was that I wished there was more. Not necessarily more stories, but I wish that a greater portion of the novel was dedicated to Beedle's fables and not to Dumbledore's notes. I also wish there had been a bit more to The Tale of Three Brothers. It was pretty much the same thing that was presented to us in the [b: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows|136251|Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7)|J.K. Rowling|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1474171184s/136251.jpg|2963218], book or film. I was hoping for a little extra something, especially since the author saved this one for last and I have to read everything in order, no matter how much I don't want to. Other than that, this book was outstanding and by far my favourite of the Hogwarts Library!

At first I was worried these stories would be too close to the Brothers Grimm's or to Aderson Christain's, but they weren't. They were unique (in ways explained in the introduction) and 100% wizarding tales. The messages, directed primarily to young witches and wizards, did little for me but it did not decrease my enjoyment of the novel. Some even did have relevance to us Muggles, like magic is not always the solution. Dumbledore's and Rowling's notes, while long, gave much appreciated depth to the wizarding world and life as a young witch/wizard and Hogwarts student. The history of how the fables were adapted into less crude/gory/Muggle-loving stories were much like what has happened to our classic tales over the course of time.

What surprised me the most was how open the stories were to Muggles. It's easy in Harry Potter to get that most of the peoples of the wizarding world are not open to them or Muggle-born witches/wizards, yet these stories encourage children to kind to their magicless neighbours and that it's okay to love a non-magical person. Of course this spiked some nasty letters from Luscious Malfoy, but I'm with Dumbledore and will ignore them.

The references to [b: Fantastic Beats and where to Find Them|41899|Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them|Newt Scamander|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1303738520s/41899.jpg|4195128] was a nice change. It's one of the only references in the whole of the Hogwarts Library collection that I could actually look up. I wish there were more of these textbooks out there... especially the ones referenced in the companions. It would just make it all complete.

And finally, the best part about this book is that some of the money from the purchase goes to charity.

Probably the longest review I've written to date (excluding all the papers done for school for The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom)