{"id":292871,"date":"2020-05-26T07:30:37","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T13:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/b1155721"},"modified":"2020-05-26T07:30:37","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T13:30:37","slug":"listen-up-harry-potter-fans-j-k-rowling-is-releasing-a-totally-new-book-the-ickabog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/music-news\/listen-up-harry-potter-fans-j-k-rowling-is-releasing-a-totally-new-book-the-ickabog\/","title":{"rendered":"Listen Up, Harry Potter Fans! J.K. Rowling Is Releasing a Totally New Book The Ickabog"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Listen up, Harry Potter<\/em> fans!<\/p>\n

J.K. Rowling<\/a><\/strong> is releasing a totally new book. That’s right! The 54-year-old author announced the new fairy tale, called The Ickabog<\/em>, via her website<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

While Rowling made it clear “this is not a Harry Potter<\/em> spinoff,” she also noted she came up with the idea for the story while she was still writing the Harry Potter<\/em> series. <\/p>\n

“I wrote most of a first draft in fits and starts between Potter<\/em> books, intending to publish it after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows<\/em>,” she wrote via her website. “However, after the last Potter<\/em> book I wanted to take a break from publishing, which ended up lasting five years.” <\/p>\n

During that time, Rowling wrote The Casual Vacancy<\/em> and The Cuckoo’s Calling<\/em>. Then, after a bit of “dithering,” she decided to “step away from children’s books for a while.” As a result, her first draft of The<\/em> Ickabog<\/em> was tucked away in the attic, where she said it stayed for nearly a decade.<\/p>\n

“Over time I came to think of it as a story that belonged to my two younger children, because I’d read it to them in the evenings when they were little, which has always been a happy family memory,” she continued via her site.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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Then, a few weeks ago, she decided to bring the book back down and publish it for free for children social distancing amid the global coronavirus pandemic. She’s also donating<\/a> all author royalties from The<\/em> Ickabog<\/em> to coronavirus relief efforts once it’s published. The book is expected to be published in print, eBook and audio formats in November 2020.<\/p>\n

 Her family members seemed in favor of revisiting the tale, too.<\/p>\n

“My now teenagers were touchingly enthusiastic, so downstairs came the very dusty box, and for the last few weeks I’ve been immersed in a fictional world I thought I’d never enter again,” Rowling wrote via her site. “As I worked to finish the book, I started reading chapters nightly to the family again. This was one of the most extraordinary experiences of my writing life, as The Ickabog<\/em>‘s first two readers told me what they remember from when they were tiny, and demanded the reinstatement of bits they’d particularly liked (I obeyed).”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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.)<\/p>\n

4\/13 pic.twitter.com\/vg8F5Qx33M<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 26, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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So, what is the book about? Rowling described it as a “story about truth and the abuse of power.” However, she reiterated she came up with the idea for the book over a decade ago and made it clear “it isn’t intended to be read as a response to anything that’s happening in the world right now,” noting “the themes are timeless and could apply to any era or any country.” <\/p>\n

While Rowling called the story a “read-aloud book,” she also said it’s “suitable” for children between the ages of 7 and 9 to read to themselves.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

5\/13 pic.twitter.com\/mz1qaGyyUt<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 26, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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As for those wanting to dive into the story, Rowling wrote she intends to post a chapter (“or two, or three”) every weekday between May 26 and July 10 via the The Ickabog<\/em> website. But that’s not all. She’s also calling upon her young readers to help with the illustrations with a friendly competition. The winning images will be featured in the book this November. <\/p>\n

Rowling has come up with many ways to keep readers entertained amid the global pandemic. She also recently launched the online hub Harry Potter At Home<\/a> and released audio recordings of the first installments of the Harry Potter<\/em> book series, including a chapter read<\/a> by Daniel Radcliffe<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

via:: E! Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listen up, Harry Potter fans! J.K. Rowling is releasing a totally new book. That’s right! The 54-year-old author announced the new fairy tale, called The Ickabog, via her website on Tuesday. While Rowling made it clear “this is not a Harry Potter spinoff,” she also noted she came up with the idea for the story […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-292871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-music-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-19 04:38:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIDN - The Lift FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}