THE LEXICON

His publisher having lost 2008’s courtroom battle against J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers over an initial print version of his popular fan site’s encyclopedia of everything Potter, Vander Ark offers a revised second take. The alphabetical, short-entry structure remains, but the text has been rewritten to create more distance from its source material. As a result, potential spoilers have been minimized; instead of “[fighting] against the Death Eaters in the Battle of Hogwarts,” for instance, the hostile centaur Bane “eventually took sides and fought against the Death Eaters.” There are also no plot summaries, and, with the exceptions of Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, none of the canonical HP titles or films rate full entries. Come to that, neither do Muggles, including Rowling. Nonetheless, stealing a march on all competitors by treating The Tales of Beedle the Bard (2008) as a separate title, this wins points for currency, and all but the most obsessive readers will find it unexcelled for ease of use as a quick reference guide. (source list) (Reference. 10-adult)