The Tales of Beedle the Bard

News for Harry Potter fans today from London! At an auction today at Sotheby's, Amazon.com purchased a handwritten and illustrated, leather-bound, silver-and-moonstone-decorated copy of J.K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard, for an astonishing GBP 1,950,000 (nearly $4 million!). This is one of only seven copies of the small book of fairy tales that appeared prominently in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and the proceeds are earmarked for The Children's Voice campaign, a charity Rowling co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe. The other six copies of the book were given to friends who were especially supportive to Rowling while she was writing Harry Potter. More details, pictures, and future reviews of the fairy tales can and will be found at Amazon.com's page on the book here.