The Lexicon: An Unauthorized Guide to Harry Potter Fiction and Related Materials

By Steve Vander Ark

Book Overview

This unofficial guide to the popular series by J.K. Rowling is an ideal companion work for the curious reader who wants to know more about these remarkable books. Extensive new commentary, which does... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1571431748
• ISBN13: 9781571431745
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Rdr Books
• Length: 347 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Useful and delightful tool

"The Lexicon" is more than a glossary of Harry Potter terminology. This listing of names, terms, geographical and magical markers offers definitions, descriptions and connections that are magical, even for muggles. Furthermore, the book captures the spirit and sparkle of the Harry Potter series (and canon) in a way that is faithful to J. K. Rowling's creation and the readers' need to plumb the depths of the individual books or the entire saga. Congratulations to the compiler Steve Vander Ark and his associates. Their vision and perseverance have produced good results. "The Lexicon" is a significant resource for those who take J. K. Rowling's writing seriously.

Liove Harry Potter? Try this!

Reviewed by McKenzie Tritt (age 15) for Reader Views (7/09) "The Lexicon: An Unauthorized Guide to Harry Potter Fiction and Related Materials" by Steve Vander Ark and his team has finally been published after some trouble in court (read: a lawsuit). This book is a guide to all things Harry Potter, some far out and some quite obvious. It offers three-hundred and forty-five pages of encyclopedia-like text on all of the characters and terms of our most beloved series. It is organized alphabetically, making it easy to find a specific item, and it contains sources so that you can find where each description, as well as the part it plays in Harry Potter, is located. Plus, if it is in a Harry Potter book, "The Lexicon" will even tell you which chapter of the book it is located in! "The Lexicon" is basically an encyclopedia of all things Harry Potter. Now, just a quick note - for all of those who were hoping for another book from J.K. Rowling, this isn't it. This is an unauthorized guide to the books, not Rowling's actually writing. "The Lexicon" is a good book because there are two ways to read it. You can read it cover to cover, like a normal book, if you want another dose of Harry Potter. You can also read it alongside the Harry Potter books and look up characters and terms as you progress. One of the cool things about this book is how the words are broken down. If possible, roots are provided for each word, and it often gives you some insight into what it means. For example, Nox, a spell which extinguishes light cast by Lumos, means `night' in Latin. Pretty cool, huh? This book was great because of just how in-depth it was; it covered a variety of topics from characters to spells to potion ingredients. The descriptions were quick and witty, giving just the right amount of information. "The Lexicon" was great for the above average fan of Harry Potter, but may not be what the normal fan is looking for. It is a lot of extra information on things that most fans wouldn't really care about. If you are looking for a more in-depth guide, however, I think this one is a good one to check out. This would be a great tool for fan fiction writers! One thing I have heard, however, is that a lot of this information is available on the Lexicon website, a Harry Potter fan site. I believe that this book could go either way; you'll love it or you won't. I would recommend "The Lexicon" by Steve Vander Ark to super Harry Potter fans; it might be a bit too much for the average fan.

The Lexicon

Okay, so The Lexicon. The book that prompted a legal battle that pretty much split the fandom. A lot of trouble to get one book published, and in my humble opinion, it was worth it all. While it has its small problems, The Lexicon is THE Harry Potter superguide we've all wanted for so many years. The fans will like it, the newer readers just getting into the series will certainly appreciate it, and any re-read will have to be accompanied by this invaluable encyclopedia. Not all of the information is included, and the organization is not the best (It is, as in any encyclopedia, alphabetical, but I wonder if it should have had more effort put into the categorization. After all, chances of me going to look up 'abstinence' instead of a simpler 'passwords' are very, very slim.) Of course, not all the information is included, and you'll have to dig a little to find what you're looking for, but you will find what you're looking for. In a nutshell, essential for fanatics, essential for new fans, but ultimately, it is the website you should be consulting. Rating: 4.5/5

A Marvelous Resource

If you want to understand the marvelously complex world that underlies J. K. Rowlings' Harry Potter from: Abbot--Family name on a headstone in the graveyard in Godric's Hollow... to: zoological column--The Daily Prophet does a zoological column every Wednesday... then this is the book for you. It contains virtually every imaginable person, place, thing and event in the tale, with a handy reference to the book and chapter that's the source. One warning. I wouldn't suggest consulting this book the first time you read all seven volumes. You only get one chance to read a book for the first time. Make the most of it. Enjoy the tale as a whole in a way you'll never be able to repeat. But at some point, you'll want to understand the magical world behind the story. Then you'll want to consult this book, written by one of the premier Potter fans in the world and the host of the popular Harry Potter Lexicon website. --Michael W. Perry, Untangling Tolkien: A Chronology and Commentary for The Lord of the Rings

Refreshing Facts and How to Find Them

Anyone who was ever been immersed in reading the Harry Potter books knows that there are hundreds of characters, dozens of spells, a menagerie of creatures, and zillions of little fanciful details. And that's what you will find in The Lexicon: a refreshing refresher course in the facts of the series. This is the book for those times when you just can't remember the differences between a "Hover Charm" and "Wingardium Leviosa," or was it "Levicorpus?" Or when you can't recall whether a detail is from one of the Harry Potter movies or from the books. Was that irritating shrunken head in the Azkaban movie based on anything in the books? Yes, believe it or not - only it was in Chamber of Secrets and it didn't speak with a Jamaican accent. Just paging through the book is a fun walk down memory lane. I had forgotten all about the students falling ill with "Umbridge-itis," or that there was a Beauty specialist with the delightful name of "Madam Primpernelle." And take, for example, the entry about "Dragon Milk Cheese." The writers of the Lexicon take the obvious literal question of how dragons could give milk since they are clearly reptilian and not mammals, and harken back to a seventeenth century term for "strong beer usually reserved for royalty." Baby dragons must burp alot, huh? It sounds as if the cheese would be tasty. There are hundreds of such examples of scholarship that enrich and reward the reader, such as Latinate root words provided for spells such as "Cave Inimicum" (beware of enemies) and "Protego Horribilis" (shield us from the frightful). I think children would especially find this fun and useful, since none of that is explained in the books, and most kids (or adults) don't have a Latin dictionary lying around the house. The paperback cover is quite attractive, with medieval lettering and antique burnishing, and the abbreviations for sources are easy to understand. This is a great addition to the Harry Potter bookshelf, whether at home or in a library.