Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a 2001 book written by British author J. K. Rowling (under the pseudonym of the ficticious author Newt Scamander) about the magical creatures in the Harry Potter universe. It purports to be Harry Potter‘s copy of the textbook of the same name mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first novel of the series. It includes several notes inside it handwritten by Harry and his best friend Ron Weasley about things they did in the book.
In a 2001 interview with publisher Scholastic, Rowling stated that she chose the subject of magical creatures because it was a fun topic for which she had already developed a lot of information in earlier books. Rowling’s name does not appear on the cover of the book, the work being credited under the pseudonym “Newt Scamander”, who, in the books, wrote this textbook as seen on Harry’s supply list for his first year.
Fantastic Beasts purports to be a reproduction of a textbook owned by Harry Potter and written by magizoologist Newt Scamander, a character in the fictional series. In the series, Magizoology is the study of magical creatures.
