J.K. Rowling has unveiled her latest book for children—and it has nothing to do with a certain boy wizard.
The Harry Potter creator announced on Tuesday that The Ickabog, a story that she wrote for her two younger children, will be serialized online for free.
“It isn’t Harry Potter and it doesn’t include magic,” she wrote. “This is an entirely different story.” The first chapter is now online, and she will continue to publish chapters daily through July 10.
Rowling said that she had originally planned to publish the book after the release of the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but she got distracted by writing books for adults.
“After some dithering ... I decided I wanted to step away from children’s books for a while,” she explained. “At that point, the first draft of The Ickabog went up into the attic, where it’s remained for nearly a decade.”
She decided to publish the book online for free with the approval of her kids—who, she said, “demanded the reinstatement of bits they’d particularly liked.”
The Ickabog will be published in print in November, and Rowling is crowdsourcing illustrations for the book from her young fans. She’s sponsoring a competition in which kids can send art inspired by the story, with the winning illustrations included in the book when it publishes.
“I want to see imaginations run wild!” she wrote. “Creativity, inventiveness, and effort are the most important things: We aren’t necessarily looking for the most technical skill!”
Rowling said she’s planning to donate all royalties from the eventual book to “help groups who’ve been particularly impacted by the pandemic.”
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
