Be still your beating hearts, it's not a Harry Potter spin-off.
It's been thirteen years since the last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, was released and yeah, we're still not over it. If you and your children are a fellow lover of JK Rowling's writing, you will be delighted to know that she has announced today that she will be releasing a new standalone fairytale, The Ickabog.
Rowling sent out a tweet today detailing her plans to release the story for free online so that children could read it at home. She made it very clear, however, that this story was not a Harry Potter spin-off.
I have a small announcement, but before I get started, I
want to head off one possible source of confusion.
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THIS IS NOT A HARRY POTTER SPIN-OFF
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1/13— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 26, 2020
Although this may lead some Harry Potter fans to be disappointed, if Rowling's previous children's work is anything to go by, this will be a lovely read for families with young children at home.
We’ll be publishing a chapter (or 2 or 3) every weekday,
starting at 3.00pm today and ending on July 10th.
You don’t need to register to access the story. You can read it for free on a new website we’ll be launching shortly.
But there’s more…
8/13— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 26, 2020
In a Twitter thread, she said that she would be uploading a chapter or two of the book each weekday starting at 3 pm today and ending on the 10th of July.
If that wasn't enough to get you and the kiddies excited, Rowling has asked that her readers illustrate the book for her! She said she will be suggesting ideas for illustrations as they go along, but that nobody should feel contained by her ideas and she'd like imaginations to run wild!
The best illustrations will be included in the published version of the book which will be released in November 2020 (these will be judged by individual publishers, not Rowling herself, however, she will be retweeting some of her favourites).
The author said she wrote the story years ago "in fits and starts" while she was still writing the Harry Potter series. She had intended to publish it after the last Harry Potter book was released but decided to publish her two adult books after some contemplation. Now, she has decided that all author royalties from the published versions of the book will be donated
"to projects and organisations helping the groups most impacted by Covid-19."
We are so excited! For more information see here.
Will you be getting involved?