Book Review: Harry Potter: A History of Magic

This is the adult companion guide to the British Library’s exhibit on Harry Potter (there's a shorter children's version of the guide that I did not look at).

After the introduction the book has nine chapters: The Journey, Potions and Alchemy, Herbology, Charms, Astronomy, Divination, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Care of Magical Creatures, and Past, Present, Future. Each chapter begins with a short introductory essay, followed by exhibit items in that category. There are a number of tidbits thrown in by the curators of the library’s collection. The final chapter is about J. K. Rowling’s work, showing some manuscript pages and edits she did on the books.

I found there was a lot of repeated information, especially with the first few chapters. The same quote or tidbit would be in the essay, mentioned again with the catalogue entry, then be in a text box elsewhere on the page. 

Entries are accompanied by relevant quotes from the Harry Potter novels. A few chapters showed early manuscript pages or drawings by J. K. Rowland depicting the characters. There were also portrait paintings by Jim Kay and mini biographies for some of the Hogwarts professors teaching the classes that lend their names to the chapters. 

Personally, I found the information provided lacking. It gives the barest overview of the subjects. If anything, it’s a very basic primer for the history of magic and a jumping off point for doing more in depth research elsewhere. A lot of great source material is mentioned, much of it free online, for those wishing to learn more specifics on many of the topics.

There’s no deeper discussion of why people believed in these things or how beliefs changed over time and distance. I guess I was hoping the book would go into more depth. Instead, it barely scratches the surface of what’s being covered.

As an exhibit guide it’s fantastic, showing a lot of colour photographs of the objects, often with multiple pages of manuscripts shown and comparison images. While the majority of information is Europe specific, I was impressed that some magical items from other cultures were mentioned (Ethiopian talisman scrolls, a Thai divination manual, a Japanese mythological creature, etc.).

On the whole, I wasn’t as impressed by this book as I’d hoped to be. 

Harry Potter Science Center Exhibit

This past Saturday my husband and I checked out the Harry Potter Exhibit at the Ontario Science Center. It's been a while since I've read the books so I was actually going to skip the exhibit as it's fairly expensive. Then one of my co-workers came to work raving about it so off I went to get tickets.

I'm glad I did. The exhibit was definitely worth the money. In the lobby are signs and the flying car from book 2, suspended in the air. They even turned on the headlights in the evening.

When you get to the exhibit (6th floor here), they let you in in 7 minute intervals. You have the option of renting the guided tour headset, which my co-worker said mentioned some great information. I decided to do the tour solo and found that fine.

The tour begins with a costumed guide sorting part of the group into Hogwarts houses. I made Ravenclaw. :) Then there's the Hogwart's express. It's a foggy exhibit, with the train and piles of luggage. There's even a wanted sign for Sirius Black (but not one that moves).

For the moving pictures you need to head to the next room. Here are some of the paintings from the school of witchcraft and wizardry. A few of them move, while others are stationary. The Fat Lady sits in the doorway trying to, unsuccessfully, break a glass with her voice.

This is where the displays start. There are props and costumes from the films, character wands (it's amazing how each one is different, and so intricate) and more. The bottles of spell ingredients from the potions class are there, as are Ron and Harry's beds (did you know the bed curtains are solid red on the outside and patterned with gold stars, etc. on the inside? Madam Hooch's flight robes were my favourite of the costumes, though Lockhart's dueling robes were a close second.

There were a few interactive exhibits, pulling mandrakes, throwing quaffles through hoops and trying out Hagrid's chair. A gentleman at Hagrid's hut explained how they made Robbie Coltrane look half-giant sized. Also by the hut was buckbeak the hippogriff, which was amazing. There was a baby thestral too.

But the best exhibit, was the one dedicated to the dark arts. There we got to see the angel of death statue that hung over Voldemort's family tomb. There we saw dementors and death eaters. And ministry of magic decrees. Read the last line of the decrees and know someone working on the film had a sense of humour.

Finally, there was the great hall. Here candles hung from the ceiling and formal robes lined the walls. It's amazing the amount of detail put into the costumes and props. The triwizard cup was spectacular. It makes you wish they'd focused in on more of these details in the films so you could really see what things looked like.

The gift shop was designed with Diagon Alley in mind. Several of those shops are represented here, names printed in gold over the goods most likely to be sold there. It wasn't perfect, of course, but it was fun. I only wish the prices were more reasonable ($4 for a chocolate frog, $9 for Berty Botts Every Flavour Beans, upwards of $50 for a decent replica wand).

Anyway, it was a great experience and if the exhibit comes your way I highly recommend it.

Harry Potter the Exhibition comes to Toronto

A travelling exhibition of Harry Potter movie memorabilia will be at the Ontario Science Center from April 9th to August 22nd, 2010. Visitors will be able to see the Gryffindor common room, Hagrid's hut, the herbology and defense against the dark arts classroom props as well as various costumes and other iconic things like the Marauders' Map.

For more information check out the exhibition's home page and that of the science center.