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"A vicious guide to monstrous creatures."
— Description[src]

The Monster Book of Monsters[3] by Edwardus Lima[1] was a particularly vicious sentient textbook that was used in Care of Magical Creatures while Rubeus Hagrid (who thought the book's aggressive nature was amusing) was the Professor for that subject at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.[3][4][5]

The book was quite informative, but one usually found it difficult to access the information within due to the book's unfortunate tendency to try and bite off the reader's fingers. The only way to subdue the book was to stroke its spine, upon which the book opened placidly.[5]

History[]

"Hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books? Yeh've got to stroke 'em."
— Hagrid in his first lesson of magical creatures[src]

In 1932, multiple copies of this book were placed inside a duplicate copy of Newton Scamander's suitcase, so that when the Alliance opened it in Bhutan, they were attacked by the books, along with other items.[2]

Rubeus Hagrid gave one to Harry Potter for his 13th birthday in 1993 as it was part of his requirements for his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.[3]

Monster book

Copies of this book held at Flourish and Blotts

After various incidents in which different copies of the books attacked each other, the manager of Flourish and Blotts in Diagon Alley vowed never to stock them again; he found the situation to be worse than when the entire stock of The Invisible Book of Invisibility disappeared.[4]

When students brought this book to Hogwarts for Rubeus Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class, they had to force the books shut with belts and Spello-tape because they didn't know how to calm the books.[5]

NevilleMBoM

The book attacking Neville Longbottom

Hermione Granger considered this book along with many others as she was deciding on the supplies they would need to take on their mission to find Voldemort's Horcruxes. As she was sorting books, it broke free of its restraints and bit Ron Weasley on the ankle. It is unknown if she took it with them.[6]

At some point in its history, Dervish and Banges apparently suffered a bad incident involving a copy of this book, as their instructions for their closing procedure included "Double check the lock on The Monster Book of Monsters! (you know what happened last time.)"[7]

During the mysterious Calamity which happened across the wizarding world in the 2010s, copies of The Monster Book of Monsters appeared throughout the world as Foundables, with volunteer wizard and witches employed by the Statute of Secrecy Task Force having to use magic to sort them out. A particularly vicious copy of this book was seen in a Muggle convenience store, shredding magazines and eating groceries, and even assaulted the Muggle shopkeeper, biting him on his left buttock, who tried to fend it off with a sweeping broom. The police were called, and assumed it be a hoax call, but found it rather amusing, and the injured shopkeeper had to seek medical attention afterwards.[8]

During the Calamity, Rubeus Hagrid lent his personal copy of The Monster Book of Monsters to a Calamity Investigator working for the Statute of Secrecy Task Force. This version turned out to be more violent than the typical book, destroying the investigator's favourite mug, eating a chair leg, and shredding several pages.[9]

Constance Pickering once owned a copy of this book, which she disliked as it once bit her.[10]

Known creatures covered in the book[]

The Monster Book of Monsters

A copy of this book

Behind the scenes[]

Prop Monster Book of Monsters

Prop version of the book included with the Harry Potter Limited Edition

Neville Longbottom holding book pop vinyl

Neville Longbottom holding The Monster Book of Monsters as a POP! Vinyl

  • Warner Brothers online shop offers an electronic-plush version of the Monster Book of Monsters. There is also a version of the Monster Book of Monsters available at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter as a novelty toy.
  • In the film, The Monster Book of Monsters seemed to have a belt given along with it, rather than the students all finding different methods to restrain it.
  • In the handheld versions of LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, during Year 1, a group of Monster Books attack Flourish and Blotts, and Harry must help assist in restoring some of the other damaged books with the Mending Charm before he can purchase his first year textbooks. Upon leaving the shop, Harry finds that they have escaped out into the main part of the alley, and must destroy them with the Reductor Curse. In the console version, Harry Potter and Arthur Weasley must deal with a vicious copy of this book in an upstairs bedroom in the Leaky Cauldron.[22]
  • A scale replica prop of The Monster Book of Monsters is included with the Harry Potter Limited Edition.[23]
  • The Monster Book appears as the first enemy and first boss in the GBA version of the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It has low health and can easily be defeated using Flipendo or Incendio, essentially being an unlosable fight. When it is defeated, Harry can read the bestiary in the book.
    • It also appears as a reccuring boss in the console versions, where it can only be damaged by casting Flipendo at its pages when opened up akin to a mouth. Akin to several projectiles in the game, Expelliarmus can be cast to deflect its main attack of spitting out a wad of pages in an high overhead arch at the player.
      • Curiously in said versions, there is always a single Book in the Charms classroom that is in a defeated state groaning throughout, but can always be refought whenever the flying books from the shelves are defeated either through casting Flipendo or Snufflifors at them. Once they are all dealt with, the Monster Book will reanimate itself with its health bar shown in full, and can be fought and defeated as normal. Exiting and re-entering the room allows this process to be repeated as many times as one wishes, accessible as soon as the Charms class is completed in the playthrough.
  • The Marauder's Map depicted in the closing credits of the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban shows a "Book of Monster's Repair Workshop" where presumably copies of this book could be sent to be repaired.
  • Most of the creatures included in the prop used in the film version are not mentioned anywhere else in the Harry Potter universe, and were invented by the film crew themselves; as such, they are possibly not canonical.

Appearances[]

Wiki
The Harry Potter Wiki has 23 images related to The Monster Book of Monsters.

Notes and references[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Harry Potter Page to Screen: The Complete Filmmaking Journey, p. 505 (see this image)
  2. 2.0 2.1 Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 1 (Owl Post)
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 4 (The Leaky Cauldron)
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 6 (Talons and Tea Leaves)
  6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 6 (The Ghoul in Pyjamas)
  7. "The Wizarding World: Secrets and Details" at MuggleNet.
  8. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite - see this video [1]
  9. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
  10. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite - Brilliant Event: First Year at Hogwarts
  11. 11.0 11.1 "First look at Deathly Hallows props including 'Life and Lies', 'A History of Magic', more" from MuggleNet (archived on the Internet Archive here)
  12. See this image of a page from the prop version of The Monster Book of Monsters featured in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
  13. See this image of a page from the prop version of The Monster Book of Monsters featured in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
  14. See this image of a page from the prop version of The Monster Book of Monsters featured in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
  15. "The Monster Book of Monsters pages" on the The Replica Prop Forum (see this image)
  16. "Vertical drops, Blast-Ended Skrewts and more surprises to come in Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure (see image) at Pottermore
  17. See this image of a page from the prop version of The Monster Book of Monsters featured in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
  18. See this image of a page from the prop version of The Monster Book of Monsters featured in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
  19. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 31 (The Third Task)
  20. "The Monster Book of Monsters pages" on The Replica Prop Forum (see this image)
  21. See this image of a page from the prop version of The Monster Book of Monsters featured in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
  22. LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
  23. Snitchseeker - Harry Potter Limited Edition special bookset, with "Page To Screen", out December 4
Care of Magical Creatures
Fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-pottermore
Care of Magical Creatures at Hogwarts
Hagrid's Hut · Forbidden Forest · Care of Magical Creatures Classroom · Magical Creatures (club) · The Paddock
Professors Silvanus Kettleburn · Rubeus Hagrid · Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank (substitute teacher)
Textbooks The Monster Book of Monsters · Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Creatures studied at Hogwarts
Blast-Ended Skrewt · Bowtruckle · Chimaera · Crup · Demiguise · Diricawl · Doxy · Dugbog · Fairy · Fire Crab · Fire Dwelling Salamander · Flobberworm · Fwooper · Glumbumble · Gnome · Golden Snidget · Griffin · Hippogriff · Imp · Jackalope · Knarl · Kneazle · Moke · Murtlap · Niffler · Occamy · Porlock · Quintaped · Streeler · Thestral · Unicorn · Yeti
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