J.K. Rowling releases first two chapters of new book The Ickabog online
By Mia Johnson
A new children’s book is coming from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling called The Ickabog.
The tales of Harry Potter and his friends may be over, but J.K. Rowling is ready to introduce a new children’s book called The Ickabog, and it’s being released all this summer.
On Rowling’s official website, the Harry Potter author revealed she was ready to give life to an old project that she had shelved for roughly a decade. The Ickabog is an idea that she began writing in between Harry Potter books, and after writing the final book in the saga, she went on a writing hiatus. As she described on her website, she moved the pages of her book to the attic, never to be seen again… until now.
As an offer to help children and families through the COVID-19 crisis, Rowling said she’s ready to revisit The Ickabog and will be releasing the book online for free. Every weekday between May 26 and July 10, Rowling will release a chapter (or perhaps more) of the book online.
As of today, the first two chapters are available to read on The Ickabog’s official website. Physical copies of the book as well as e-books and audiobooks will be available in November 2020.
Describing the book, Rowling noted: “The Ickabog is a story about truth and the abuse of power. To forestall one obvious question: the idea came to me well over a decade ago, so it isn’t intended to be read as a response to anything that’s happening in the world right now. The themes are timeless and could apply to any era or any country.”
On Twitter, Rowling shared some of the photographs of the special project from her home, showing hand-written notes and typed-up pages that had gotten stored away for years.
Over time I came to think of The Ickabog as just for my family. The manuscript went up into the attic, where it remained until a few weeks ago.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 26, 2020
This is the very dusty box I got down from the attic.
(It's a Net-A-Porter box and might well have held a premiere dress.)
4/13 pic.twitter.com/vg8F5Qx33M
Opening the box was like opening a time capsule. Most of the story was handwritten, but bits had been typed up. When I put it into some kind of order (I'm not renowned for my filing skills) I had a patchwork first draft.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 26, 2020
5/13 pic.twitter.com/mz1qaGyyUt
While Rowling says the book is suitable for reading aloud to children, and children aged 7-9 can read it on their own, don’t let that stop older fans from entering this new fantasy world that the author has created.
But as an additional note, the author mentioned on Twitter that this project is not a Harry Potter spinoff. So sorry to the hopefuls who thought this would have some sort of connection to the Wizarding World favorite. But, if you are looking for something Harry Potter-related, a read-along of the first book is currently in progress with some big celebrity names, including Daniel Radcliffe himself.
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