J. K. Rowling's latest effort, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, goes on sale today, just in time for all the Harry Potter fans on your holiday shopping list, the ones who are still mourning the end of the stupendously successful series about the kid with the scar on his head. And while this new book is not actually about Harry Potter, it's a J. K. Rowling book, so we know it will be good, right? According to Wired.com's Matt Blum, "The new book contains illustrations by the author herself, and is meant to be a translation -- by Hermione Granger, of course -- of a 'Wizarding classic' mentioned in the seventh book, along with commentary by Prof. Albus Dumbledore." Cool.

I love the idea of this book. A couple of years back, I bought my son the other "companion" books to the Harry Potter series, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and Quidditch Through the Ages (they come as a boxed set). My son loved them, primarily because they purport to be owned by Harry Potter, and have doodles and notes in them written by Harry, Ron, and Hermione. One of the reasons so many readers -- especially young readers -- got so caught up in the Harry Potter series was the fact that Harry was so much like them, despite all his differences. So owning his books is one more way to engage with the original story, and this new book offers readers that chance.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard comes in a nice hardback edition, which retails for $12.99 -- a good price in itself, but I'll bet if you look around in the next day or so, you can snatch it up for less. I'll be getting it for my son for his stocking -- shh, don't tell!