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26th May 2020

JK Rowling releasing free children’s book online

Sarah Finnan

JK Rowling children's book

JK Rowling has announced that she’ll be releasing a children’s book she wrote online – free for all to enjoy while spending time at home.

The queen of children’s literature (though let it be said that Harry Potter is as enjoyable as an adult reader, if not even maybe slightly more so), JK Rowling has announced that she’ll be releasing a free children’s book online.

Surprising fans with the news, she took to Twitter to reveal the nitty-gritty details. Titled The Ickabog, the hardcopy version will be released in November, however, anyone who can’t wait until then can read the story online ahead of time. Warning fans ahead of time that the book “is not a Harry Potter spin-off” (sad times), the author went on to say that she wrote the stand-alone fairy tale over 10 years ago.

“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.”

She later added:

“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.”

Chapters will be published weekly every weekday starting at 3pm today, leading up to the finale on July 10th. She’s also encouraging young readers to help her illustrate the book promising that the best pictures in each publishing territory will be included in the printed copy.

And, in true JK Rowling fashion, she’ll be donating her author royalties from the published books to projects and organisations helping the groups most impacted by Covid-19.  What a woman.

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