JK: How my new kids’ book gave me sense of purpose in pandemic
RELEASING her latest children’s book gave JK Rowling a ‘sense of purpose’ during the pandemic, the author has revealed.
Worried about the impact of coronavirus on families, she decided to dust down a ten-year-old manuscript and launched a competition for children stuck at home to draw the illustrations.
The resulting book, The Ickabog, set in imaginary Cornucopia, is the tale of
King Fred the Fearless who goes in search of the mythical monster after which the story takes its name.
Rowling wrote the story to read to her children before stashing it in her attic, but it has now been published.
The Harry Potter author has pledged to donate all royalties from The Ickabog to The Volant Charitable Trust – set up by her in her mother Anne’s maiden name.
Speaking to a radio show, Ms Rowling said she had thought ‘how difficult it was going to be for families with children’ during a ‘dreadful year for everyone’.
The writer added:
‘It did give me a particular sense of purpose thinking, “This can help, this can do something”, because I’m married to a doctor, which makes you feel very inadequate when there’s a pandemic going on.
‘Watching people in my family who are key workers go out there and face it all, simultaneously I was so proud of everyone but I was feeling anxious for them.’
Ms Rowling said she was aware of the challenges faced by some families and understood how difficult it would be for those with young children, particularly those without gardens.
She said: ‘It is really intense, looking after small children, if they can’t have play dates.
‘I was just thinking, “This is going to be so tough for people”, and that’s when I thought I could do something.’
The competition for children to draw illustrations for the book received 60,000 entries from across the world.
Ms Rowling said: ‘It was simply mind-blowing.
‘Not just the number of illustrations but the quality, even from very small children – they’d really pulled out all the stops.
‘I found it so inspiring. I was in tears at one point looking at all these amazing pictures. It was wonderful and a real gift.
‘It gave me something under lockdown that I could never have had otherwise.’