A Reality Check On Harry Potter

I was reading a J.K. Rowling Harry Potter franchise spin-off book last night to Grace called “Tales of Beedle the Bard – Fountain of Fair Fortune”. This was a great bedtime book because it is a collection of short stories. I enjoyed this book personally as the stories are quirky and fun. In the Harry Potter Books, Tales of Beedle the Bard was mention briefly because of the story of the 3 brothers and the Deathly Hallows. Well, I hope you know what that was all about because I’m not about to expound on the entire Harry Potter series to you. (Actually I would, if I had 3 days or more.)

So being an avid Harry Potter fan, I had read the original Tales of Beedle the Bard book scans many years ago when it first came out but only bought it last year in USA when I came across it in a physical Amazon bookstore.

I have been reading some stories from the book to Grace, and so I was reading the Fountain of Fair Fortune to Grace and we got to the part with the 3 witches which goes roughly like this:

“First is Asha who is sick of a malady no Healer could cure who hopes the Fountain can restore her health. The second is Altheda who was robbed and she hopes the Fountain will relieve her helplessness and her poverty. The third witch, Amata, was deserted by her beloved, and hopes the Fountain will help cure her grief and longing. Feeling pity for each other, they decided to help each other get to the fountain together even though the fountain can only heal ONE person.”

She was puzzled and asked me to repeat this paragraph twice. And then she interrupts me and says, “Why are they going together? If only one can be cured, it should be Asha cos she is sick and dying! She needs the most help right?”

That’s when I got a reality check. What I thought was a fantastic fairytale was completely torn apart by a 7-year-old in a second. LOL!

Honestly, children are so much more pragmatic than we thought. I have no good response, except to tell her, “This is a story” and continue. If this was Grace writing the story, it would be only one paragraph long. I wonder at what age does our logical thinking gets replaced by fantasies and emotions. Maybe it is just Grace.

Well I’m not going to spoil the story for you, it is STILL a good read so go and borrow or buy the book if you want to find out more! I still have 3 other stories from the book to read to Grace, I wonder what she will say about them.