Just So Stories

Bloomsbury Publishing

October 2024

ISBN	9781526681546
Imprint	Bloomsbury Children’s Books

RRP: $49.99

I jokingly refer to Sonia from Bloomsbury as my ‘dealer’ as she knows well my addiction, so firstly – thanks for this 🤟.

It’s another truly magnificent volume for us HP tragics. I already have some colleagues putting it on their orders list after talking about this week. I’ve been browsing through, taking my time, since it arrived a week or so ago and while there have been pages I have dwelt on in detail, I’m happy to say I still have more to savour. It is, quite simply, completely and utterly absorbing and fascinating.

Of course, this is the magic of movies. We see things – objects – and laugh, shriek or cringe at them, and often don’t really consider the hours of unseen work that goes behind each. The Kid has developed a real interest in concept art, and that is just one topic that can be explored in this encyclopedic wealth of creativity. How clever some people are! There’s the designer, the concept artist, the mechanic or engineer, the artist that sculpts/paints/sews/whatever and so on – and sometimes, for an object that is seen relatively briefly, or barely at all.

The complete ‘bigness’ [thanks Michael Palin] of this is quite incredible. One aspect I particularly enjoyed reading was how, whenever possible there was a reuse/upcycle approach to much of the furbishing for the films. For example, vintage materials or costume pieces were sought after, or…. Professor Trelawney’s classroom should have enough teapots for the entire class to have one each – how many teapots have been seen thus far in the previous films? Enough to outfit the classrom, that’s how many (36 teapots required and located within 20 minutes! and then, in addition, 72 teacups for the ‘cone’ centrepiece).

Some props (actually not many) are completely digital creations, for example, the elaborate cake Dobby causes to float in the air and then smush down onto Mrs Mason’s head, others are a combination of a physical prop, enhanced digitally – Rita Skeeter’s Quick-Quotes Quill or Ron’s Howler.

And then there are the unexpected humorous facts such as Daniel Radcliffe going through somewhere between 60 and 80 wands due to his habit of drumming Harry’s wand on his legs and them breaking regularly, around once a month, or the completely intriguing ones such as the fact that Dumbledore’s Deluminator was made with a malachite casing [did you even notice that? I sure didn’t].

For any Potterhead this will provide hours and hours of rapt reading, and re-reading. It weighs a ton so if you’re putting in a Santa sack, bear that in mind! From start to finish, it is an absolute joy, and I really think my favourite of all the HP-info books thus far. As well as the props facts there are fabulous photos, including, of course, movie stills, diagrams and concept art, quotes and interviews from the actors as well as insights into the filming of all 8 movies.

It will be a book I know I will dip into again and again, and I have no doubt that any of your Wizarding World devotees will feel the same way. Naturally it gets a 5 🧹🧹🧹🧹🧹 rating.