1 . 25 . 21
At the height of the coronavirus pandemic last April, when celebrities around the world were lecturing us via tweet to stay home and wear a mask, British novelist J. K. Rowling took a different approach. As kids were forced to forego school and interactions with friends, she published a new children’s book and released it in free installments for families stuck at home. The novel,
The Ickabog, was published in full this past Thanksgiving. Proceeds from sales of the book are donated to communities hurt most by COVID-19.
Rowling has said that the Ickabog story first came to her years ago, when her own children were young. She wrote the book during the period in which she wrote the
| A+A A-
Over 18,000 entries poured in from children aged seven to 12 based in India, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
What is so special about JK Rowling’s The Ickabog? The book a bedtime story for Rowling’s younger children has been a decade in the making. The writer, like many creative parents, would make up chapters to read to her kids.
But unlike her peers, Rowling decided to gift the story to a larger audience during the lockdown in the form of a free online series. Besides, she offered her young readers a chance to collaborate with their favourite author. Stuck at home for a larger part of 2020, kids worldwide welcomed ‘The Ickabog Illustration Competition’.