Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Newt Scamander, J.K. Rowling Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a 2001 book written by British author J. Rowling (under the pen name of the fictitious author Newt Scamander) about the magical creatures in the Harry Potter universe. Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, meaning that severe penalties are. FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM. In reading order.
In 2001, Potterheads were in for a treat when Bloomsbury published the Muggle editions of two bestselling books from the wizarding world: Quidditch Through the Ages by Kennilworth Whisp (WhizzHard Books) and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by noted British Magizoologist Newt Scamander (Obscurus Books). The latter was greatly valued by fans, since Bloomsbury had managed to acquire a facsimile of Harry Potter’s personal copy of, which was priceless for its marginalia. For instance, next to the entry on Puffskeins ( M.O.M. Classification: XX), the following dialogue is immortalised in Ron and Harry’s hands (Hermione was, presumably, paying attention in class at the time): I had one of these once What happened to it?
Fred used it for Bludger practice Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the book (as opposed to the bound movie script), with its enlightening Foreword by Albus Dumbledore and a fairly comprehensive Introduction by Newt Scamander (Order of Merlin, Second Class) is a charming mini-encyclopaedia. It is chatty – even occasionally humorous – in its entries about all manner and kind of fantastic beasts, and an educative experience even for those who do not have to take end-of-the-year examinations in Care of Magical Creatures. A unique crossover It is, thus, entirely appropriate that this fascinating magi-zoological material that JK Rowling had developed for the novels (collected in Scamander’s book) would find its use in another series set several decades before the birth of The Boy Who Lived – or for that matter, even his parents did. There is also something refreshing about an encyclopaedia being adapted into a film.
I mean, we all know of novels and short stories getting their moment in the sun, journals and assorted non-fiction, even collections of poems – but an encyclopaedia? That’s surely a first. (I am still waiting for Bollywood to adapt the Natyashastra, another encyclopaedia that is crying out for a celluloid version, but enough about pipe dreams.) Newt Scamander crosses the Atlantic It is 1926, pre-Depression New York.
Twenty-nine-year-old Newt Scamander (played by multiple award winning British actor Eddy Redmayne) has just arrived in New York. And he is carrying a battered briefcase. Scamander, always more alive to animals than wizarding folk, has come to America almost at the fag-end of his mammoth journey “from darkest jungle to brightest desert, from mountain peak to marshy bog”, poking in “lairs, burrows and nests across five continents” in pursuit of a magnum opus manuscript (commissioned by Mr Augustus Worme of Obscurus Books in 1918) that would be the one-stop compendium of magical creatures from around the world. Odd things are happening in New York. Brownstones are collapsing, people are injured, a right wing church called The Second Salemers is demanding a literal witch hunt – and the magic community is investigating all this without much success. There are rumours of Gellert Grindelwald’s involvement, but the Magical Congress of the United States of America or MACUSA is floundering, without any clear leads.
Scamander gets unwittingly involved in all this when the creatures he keeps hidden in his battered suitcase (a tribute to Hermione’s beaded bag) escape into New York City, adding to the mayhem.