Here’s some cheery news for all JK Rowling fans, and no it’s “not a harry potter spin-off”. The author who gave us the beloved Harry Potter series took to her website to announce the release of her new book The Ickabog. On her website, she also shared how she’d been writing this book alongside Harry Potter and wanted to release it right after but never did it despite having finished it for over a decade ago.
While her new book is also themed around children’s fantasy, it’s got nothing to do with Harry Potter or anything she’s ever written before. For the longest time this book was only something that she kept for her family, reading it to her children, having it tucked in the attic up until recently when she decided to release it.
After re-writing some bits of the story, she decided to release it online for free, for the children who’ve found themselves in these uncertain times during the lockdown. She tweeted the same- “over the last few weeks I’ve done a bit of rewriting and I’ve decided to publish the Ickabog for free online, so children on lockdown, or even those back at school during these strange, unsettling times, can read it or have it read to them”
She will be releasing her book a chapter or two every weekday starting 27 May up until July 10. The chapters will be published on a new website that Rowling will be launching shortly where readers need not register to access the story.
Rowling plans on publishing the book in November of 2020 and she’s even asked children to participate in the process by asking them to send in their illustrations whereby the best ones will be included in the book.
She will be donating her author royalties from the published book to relief organisations helping those who’ve been badly impacted by the effects of COVID-19.
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