New Illustrated Cover for Fantastic Beasts Book

Bloomsbury gives a sneak peek at the illustrated cover of the new edition of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.

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Last week, in the middle of all the Pottermania that came along with the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child publishing announcement, Bloomsbury announced they would, among other things, be publishing a new edition of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them to go along with the movie’s release in November. Now we have a few more details on that coming new edition.

The movie is releasing in November of 2016, but the book will not be coming along at the same time. Instead it will be arriving in bookstores in the first quarter of 2017, on February 9th. Mark your calendars accordingly.

One of the things the press release mentioned is that the new edition would have added material from J.K. Rowling. From the looks of today’s press release, that doesn’t necessarily mean there will be new entries on magical creatures or fantastic beasts. Instead Rowling has written a brand new forward for the slim volume, that was originally published in 2001 as a charity project.

The updated version will get new cover art though. The original cover matched the other two “textbook” type volumes that were released in the early aughts, working from the idea that it, along with those other two releases, Quidditch Through The Ages and The Tales of Beetle the Bard, were school books that Harry and his friends carried about, and should look the part. But now that Fantastic Beasts is a movie in it’s own right, it will get cover art to match the current covers that the original Harry Potter series has been sporting since 2014. Those covers were done by artist Jonny Duddle, who has now been commissioned to make a matching one for Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. Bloomsbury offers this sneak peek.

If one looks at the new Potter covers from 2014, you can see the resemblance:

Here is the blurb on the new edition from the press release:

An approved textbook at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry since publication, Newt Scamander’s masterpiece has entranced wizarding families through the generations. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is an introduction to the magical beasts of the wizarding world, with Scamander’s years of detailed research and exploration creating a tome of unparallelled importance. Some of the beasts will be familiar to readers of the Harry Potter books – the Hippogriff, the Basilisk, the Hungarian Horntail … Others will surprise even the most ardent amateur magizoologist: dip in to find out exactly what a Chizpurfle is, or why one should always beware of the sinister Lethifold … With an introduction by Albus Dumbledore and some rather surprising handwritten notes from former Hogwarts pupils, this brand new edition will cast new light on many wonders of the wizarding world.

Next: Scholastic Poised for Big Lift from Cursed Child

The new Fantastic Beasts edition is not available for pre-order yet, but you can sign up here to receive Bloomsbury’s announcement for when that occurs, along with all the news from the Wizarding World.

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