You’ve probably been there. You finish The Deathly Hallows, stare at the wall for twenty minutes, and wonder how you’re supposed to go back to a world where owls just carry mail and sticks are just wood. It’s a specific kind of grief. So, naturally, you start looking for Harry Potter spin off books to fill that void. But here’s the thing: not all of them are stories. If you go in expecting Harry Potter Book 8, you’re going to be wildly disappointed by a book that’s literally just a list of magical animals.
J.K. Rowling has been busy since 2007, but the expansion of the Wizarding World hasn't followed a straight line. It's a mix of charity projects, screenplays masquerading as books, and digital lore dumps. Honestly, it’s kinda messy. You have to know what you’re buying before you crack the spine, or you’ll end up reading a stage direction about a "swooping owl" instead of a deep narrative about Dumbledore’s past.
The "School Library" Trio
Back in 2001, long before the films were even finished, Rowling released two slim volumes for Comic Relief: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages. These are the OG Harry Potter spin off books. They aren't novels. Let’s be clear about that. They are "facsimile" copies of Harry’s actual schoolbooks.
Fantastic Beasts (the original red book, not the movie screenplay) is basically an encyclopedia. It’s got Newt Scamander’s name on the cover and features "handwritten" doodles from Harry and Ron in the margins. It’s charming, but it’s a reference guide. You read about the classification of XXXXX-rated creatures like the Basilisk. You don't get a plot.
Quidditch Through the Ages follows the same vibe. It’s written under the pseudonym Kennilworthy Whisp. If you’ve ever wondered how the Golden Snitch was invented because a wizard felt bad about hunting a tiny bird called a Golden Snidget, this is your book. It’s dry. It’s funny in a British, academic sort of way. But again, it’s for the lore nerds.
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Then came The Tales of Beedle the Bard in 2008. This one is different. It actually contains stories. This is the book Hermione inherits in the final main novel, containing "The Tale of the Three Brothers." It’s basically the Wizarding World version of Aesop’s Fables or Grimm’s Fairy Tales. What makes it actually worth reading are the "commentaries" by Albus Dumbledore. Those notes give you that specific Dumbledore voice we all missed—wry, slightly cryptic, and deeply wise. It’s probably the most essential of the three if you want something that feels like a real book.
The Cursed Child Controversy
We have to talk about it. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is technically the eighth story, but it’s a script. It’s not a novel. When it was released in 2016, there was a massive wave of confusion because people thought they were getting a 500-page narrative. Instead, they got stage directions and dialogue.
It’s polarizing. Some fans love the exploration of Harry as a struggling father; others think the plot—involving Time-Turners and a certain secret child of Voldemort—feels like fan fiction. Jack Thorne wrote the script based on a story by Rowling, Thorne, and John Tiffany. It hits different. It’s fast. You can read the whole thing in two hours. But because it's a script, you lose the internal monologue and the rich descriptions that made the original seven books so immersive.
The Screenplay Shift
Then the movies started writing the books. This is where Harry Potter spin off books get confusing for casual collectors. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay is exactly what it says. It’s the script for the 2016 movie. Same for The Crimes of Grindelwald and The Secrets of Dumbledore.
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These aren't novels. They are transcripts of the films. If you’ve seen the movies, these books don't offer much "new" content other than seeing how a scene was described on paper before the actors got hold of it. If you’re a completionist, fine. If you’re looking for a new reading experience, you’re basically just reading the subtitles of the movie you already watched.
The Digital Goldmine: Short Stories from Hogwarts
For a long time, the best "extra" content was trapped on the Pottermore website (now Wizarding World). In 2016, Rowling released three bite-sized eBooks that collected these writings into themes. These are underrated.
- Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists: This gives the backstory on Dolores Umbridge and the history of Azkaban. It’s dark.
- Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies: This focuses on Minerva McGonagall and Remus Lupin. The McGonagall backstory is actually heartbreaking—it involves a Muggle fiancé and a lot of sacrifice that the movies never touched.
- Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide: This covers the quirks of the castle itself, like the ghosts and the Marauder’s Map.
These aren't long. They’re basically collections of essays. But they provide the "meat" that the textbook-style spin-offs lack. They feel like the deleted scenes from the back of Rowling’s brain.
What Most People Get Wrong About These Books
People expect the spin-offs to carry the same emotional weight as the original series. They don't. The original series was a lightning-in-a-bottle coming-of-age epic. The Harry Potter spin off books are world-building tools. They are "fluff" in the best sense of the word. They expand the margins.
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There’s also a misconception that everything with the Harry Potter logo is written by Rowling in the same way. The Cursed Child is a collaboration. The movie screenplays are written with a different rhythm. If you go in expecting that cozy, 1990s British boarding school prose, you’ll only find it in the three "Pottermore Presents" eBooks and Beedle the Bard.
The Collector’s Trap
Watch out for the "illustrated editions." They are beautiful. Jim Kay’s art is breathtaking. But they aren't "new" books. They are the same text with pictures. Many fans buy the Fantastic Beasts illustrated edition thinking it’s a new story, only to realize it’s the same 2001 encyclopedia text they already own. Always check if the book is a "story," a "screenplay," or a "guide."
The market is flooded with "unofficial" guides too. Avoid those if you want the real lore. Stick to the ones published by Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic or Bloomsbury.
Your Next Steps for the Wizarding World
If you're looking to dive back in, don't just grab the first thing with a wand on the cover. Follow this path to get the most out of your reading time:
- Start with The Tales of Beedle the Bard. It’s the closest thing to a real story collection and the Dumbledore notes are genuinely funny.
- Track down the Pottermore Presents eBooks. Specifically, read the one about McGonagall and Lupin (Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies). It changes how you see those characters in the main series.
- Read the Cursed Child script ONLY if you can’t get to the play. The play is a technical masterpiece; the script is just a skeleton. If you can’t see the show in London or New York, the script is your only way to know the "canon" ending, but keep your expectations in check.
- Skip the screenplays unless you're a film student. Watch the movies instead. The visual storytelling in the Fantastic Beasts films is much better than reading the dialogue on a white page.
- Use the original Fantastic Beasts and Quidditch books as coffee table flip-throughs. They aren't meant to be read cover-to-cover in one sitting.
The magic hasn't stopped, but it has changed shape. You aren't going to find another seven-book saga hidden in these spin-offs. What you will find are the bits and pieces of a world that is still expanding, one footnote at a time.