The Ickabog is J.K. Rowling’s 2020 children’s novel first published online in installments.
Rowling released The Ickabog chapter by chapter on a free website during 2020, inviting children to create illustrations for the story. The book is a political fairy tale set in the fictional kingdom of Cornucopia, where a legendary monster becomes entangled with fear, propaganda, and abuses of power.
The story was written years earlier, while Rowling was working on Harry Potter, but she kept it private and later revised it for publication. Printed editions appeared in 2020, with proceeds directed to charitable causes connected with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ickabog is not part of the Harry Potter series. It has its own setting, characters, and mythology, although its fairy-tale form and moral concerns may remind readers of Rowling’s earlier work.