A Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter - The Sorcerer's Companion

I would highly recommend this book for a couple reasons. First of all is the quality. Though it's paperback, it's a well-made book. A book that looks nice on the outside as well as the inside always attracts me. Secondly, the information contained inside is very interesting and well-reasearched. It takes many of the magical phenomena named in Harry Potter and gives much more information on it. It's not a book about Harry Potter, just a supplement, which entertains and informs. I would recommend it for any HP reader who is interested in what exactly faeries and bogarts are, and what arithmancy is, anyway... Yes, it's worth the money.

The introduction says the book isn't intended to be read from beginning to end; well, I did read it cover to cover, and I enjoyed it. There are an overwhelming number of magical terms in the Harry Potter series; this book makes it easy to keep track of them.
For the youthful reader, there are great explanations of the root words of the terms used.
The entries of the book are based on the substantial number of magical creatures and things in the Harry Potter novels and mentions the specific character or item the entry is associated and in which book of the series.

This new companion to the Magical World of Harry Potter was totally cool! And no it was not written by J.K. Rowling. It had everything you would want to learn about Harry Potter books. I think this will make future Harry Potter books more interesting to read. In this book you will learn about the history of the broomstick,reading tea leaves ,witch persecution,Grindylow, and Hermoine's spell on Draco Malfroy! A totally hilirious book that also holds the key to tons of information on Harry Potter! Now we Muggles can learn a lot more about the magical world of Harry Potter! This book was intriging and fun all at the same time! I highly recommend you read this book and all the other Harry Potter books and The Magical World of Harry Potter!

I purchased this originally for my 10 year old, Harry Potter Fan, however when I received it and looked through the pages, it was very dark detailed book. The book explains witchery and spells and demons. Luckily, my dad was very interested and so I gave it to him.

A great night table book, it is arranged in short, alphabetical entries that can be read quickly. The authors seem uniquely suited to their subject-matter and obviously know their stuff. But, while they try to cite passages from the books as much as possible, most of the material just doesn't apply. JK Rowling seems to have skimmed a volume like this, then put it into a blender and extracted her own take on it all. It's liable to make purists a tad angry. It's all very interesting in its own right, though. I would have liked a lot more info on the "real" stuff, and less of a stretch to make it applicable.

This is a fascinating read for all of those loyal Harry Potter fans! Only read this book if you have finished with the first four Harry Potter books, as it may give away plot details. This is an absolutely wonderful book to read if you are currently awaiting the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix. It is so detailed in all the mythical history behind the Harry Potter series and really makes you appreciate all the research that goes into it. I would recomend this book for children 11 and over and for people who are not very religeous.

The Sorcerer's Companion greatly enriches the experience of reading the Harry Potter books. Rowling's imagination has a basis in folklore - this book tells the reader all about hinkypunks, grindlylows and kappas. The reader learns about what arithmancy means, its history, and how to do a little of it. The subject matter of the book is so broad; this book is hard to put down and it's not even fiction!
The book's subject matter is compelling and engrossing. The Kronzeks' writing style is also excellent. The style is friendly and appropriately interesting for children as well as fascinating for adults, just like the Harry Potter books.
The Sorcerer's Companion is also a really gorgeous book; the front cover has a beautiful illustration and what seem to be foil details; it looks like an old-fashioned tome. The pages are rich with graphics and lush detailing. These things don't detract from the words but make the whole experience of reading this book even more satisfying.
This book is terrific for kids and grown-ups!

I enjoy reading this from front to back. Subject matter I already knew, help to refresh my memory and things I didn't know can be found within its pages. Overall, great read and fits in nicely with my library.

This book impressed me greatly. It used a huge amount of primary sources for its research and referenced them all. The illustrations are almost all from classical sources as well. It entertained, informed and 'spoke' in a voice that was enjoyable. I've bought books for twice the price that weren't as well researched and/or written. Even if your not a fan of Harry Potter, you should get this book. An informative look at the history of mythology and belief in the western world is reason enough.

I've read many a Harry Potter "accessory book" but this one is one of those I'd recommend. It allows readers of the Harry Potter books to see the depth of the magical world J.K. Rowling has created. It was neatly organized and had an almost textbook feel. I enjoyed it immensely, though I did notice something didn't quite fit with what JK Rowling has written on some subjects such as witches and wizards flying on broomsticks. If I remember rightly, The Sorcerer's Companion and Quidditch Through the Ages contradict each other. But I do realize that the Sorcerer's Companion merely delved into "Muggle" lore on witches and wizards therefore little things like that do not take away from the books charm :) I highly recommend it.

A wonderful encyclopedia of Harry Potter-ish magical knowledge. Finally, a book in which many of HP's magic history, creature and disciplines are explained.
It may be dissapointing to learn that Rowlings did NOT come up with every single detail of HP, but in my opinion, it makes the HP story so much more better now that I know that it *has* stuff that is real, or at least from real life.
Loved it! Makes a great read!

This is a great book to enhance your Harry Potter reading. It deals with a lot of myths and folklore. You can use it right alongside your reading. I discovered a lot of folklore that I did not know. It helps explain creatures that JK Rowling writes about. I found this book very useful and I highly recommend it.

This book is so interesting! It combines greek myths and medevial legends to explain almost all the magical creatures and tools in Harry Potter. I read this book once and then read Harry Potter. I recognized almost all the creatures, and their connection to the real world. It made reading Harry potter lots of fun! Do YOU know that there was a real Nicholas Flamel?

As a fanfiction writer for the world of Harry Potter, I'm in consant need of more and more information about the wizarding world. No book has given me as much information as this fabulous book. Pictures, descriptions, examples from book...everything to help you better understand creatures, studies, and magical items from books 1-4. That's what so great: THIS BOOK COVERS ALL FOUR BOOKS! The writer is gifted, and obviously knows what he's talking about.
This book is difficult, though. It's not for younger children! If your thirteen and up (or have excellent reading skills) this is the perfect book about Harry Potter's magical world. I highly recommend it for someone who needs the information, or just wants it for fun.

Being an avid Harry Potter fan, and lover of folklore & mythology, I simply knew I had to have this book. I finished it in one night, and I loved it. I loved reading about Arithmancy, Divination, and Astrology. Also, I found it very interesting to read about the broomstick & cauldron. It offers loads of information & facts-about everything from an Amulet to a Zombie. All in all, it was a very informative book and I would definitely recommend it to any Harry Potter and/or folklore & mythology fan.

This book was totally awesome! If I learned something at school yesterday, it's nothing compared to what I learned in this book, I didn't know a thing about banshees before I read this! By all means, buy it!

Having been a Harry POtter fan, I much appreciate this information. It is extremely interesting but I would like to point out that this is not a Harry book, but contains excellent mythological facts. 5 stars. From the previous reviews I read, I saw that some people returned the book seeing J.K. didn't right it, well, that may be the case, but it is a very enlightening book, J.K. doesn't have to write a book for it to be great :)

The amount of interesting information in this book is undeniable; however I expect anybody who wanted to look up an object, person or magical item and its history from Harry Potter could do it faster searching Wikipedia. It's one of those books that is fun to have, but not particularly useful. That makes it the perfect book to give to a Harry Potter fan, practicing witch, or anyone interested in the history of magic.

I do like the book, very interesting indeed.
Although I am still waiting for a book that talks especifically about Harry Potter's characters and sites. That it'll work , nothing like an aside book to keep cheking a quick review of a character you just don't remember in that moment, even a spell or a plant or an animal, whatever it is. Oh well.

I found this book was educational and good for some background infromation on Harry's world. However I feel that it didn't relate to the books themselfs.
If you want to learn more about the history behind the magic then this book is perfect.

Awesome. It's incredibly interesting to learn so many of the actual myths and folk-tales (and sometimes true happenings) that JKR has worked into the Harry Potter series. The section on Arithmancy alone has led to a great deal of amusement in my household.

For those who have always been crazy fans of Harry Potter, The Sorcerer's Companion would be a great book to let you know more about the world of magic. But if you're not, just take it as a bedside reading. And you'll find yourself addicted to it!

Harry Potter is a wounderful book for young and old. I loved the Harry Potter books so much that I have read all of them twice. If you haven't read the Harry Potter books you are missing out on somthing really wounderful.

I purchased this book to write a research paper for a class- it was excellent and clearly had all the information that i needed for the paper- plus it is very interesting to see all the backround history, mythology etc that has gone into the harry potter series!

A mini encyclopedia of magic and myth.What prevents me from giving it 5 starsthat it's incompleate. I was disapointed that it didn't cover every letter in our alphabet. i.e. [for those under 13 "i.e." means "For Example,or "Such as"] It skips the letter "J"When "Jinks" could have easily, been used.

Definately doesn't compare to J.K. Rowlings writings. I'm not a fan of reading books based upon others. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.k. Rowling is more like a guide to Harry Potter. :)

J.K. Rowling's lawyers obviously missed this clunker of a book. She should have the Harry Potter name removed immediately! This piece of work is nothing more than a simplistic dictionary, not a guide to anything, unless you count the HP title and page number tacked on to the end of each definition. I kept waiting to learn anything new or interesting about any of the entries... what a waste of time.