Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling has a new book on the way, but this one has nothing to do with the witches and wizards of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In fact, this new story has nothing to do with the world of Harry Potter at all. Rowling’s new project is a children’s story called The Ickabog, and it’s one that she’s been working on for quite a long time. Rowling took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to reveal the first details about the project, and announce that the entire thing would be made available for free online.
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The Ickabog was written by Rowling more than a decade ago, when she was finishing up the original Harry Potter series. She explains in a thread of tweets that she intended to publish it after the Harry Potter books, but instead focused on books written for adults, such as Casual Vacancy. The Ickabog was ultimately put into the attic and the only people to hear about the story were Rowling’s two youngest children.
I always meant to publish it, but after the last Potter
was released I wrote two novels for adults and, after some dithering, decided to put those out next.Until very recently, the only people who’d heard the story of
The Ickabog were my two younger children.3/13
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 26, 2020
That’s all changing, though, as the book is going to be released for all to read. Rowling will be releasing a new chapter or two online every day, for everyone to read for free. Additionally, this project is meant to be a children’s book with illustrations, and Rowling is enlisting the help of young readers to help create the art for the book. Drawings of the various chapters can be submitted online and some will be chosen to make the final, published version of the book, which Rowling hopes to release in November.
The best pictures in each publishing territory will be included in the books we intend to publish in November 2020.
As individual publishers will know best which illustrations work in their editions, I won’t be personally judging this competition.
However…
10/13
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 26, 2020
The first two chapters of The Ickabog will be released online on Tuesday afternoon, with new content arriving each and every day until July 10th. Rowling added that all of her author royalties from The Ickabog will be going toward those most impacted by COVID-19.
Keep checking Rowling’s Twitter account for updates and links to where you can read The Ickabog.
Are you looking forward to reading J.K. Rowling’s newest tale? Let us know in the comments!
