JK Rowling, world-famous author thanks to the seven-volume Harry Potter saga, has written a new “sparkling” book for children: it is called “Il Maialino di Natale” and will be released simultaneously worldwide on 12 October 2021 in print, ebook and audio book. The book will be available in a hardcover edition, featuring illustrations by award-winning artist Jim Field. The cover will be unveiled in the coming months.
“Il Maialino di Natale” will be published in Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and India by the Hachette Group, in the USA and Canada by Scholastic, in Italy by Salani (Mauri Spagnol publishing group) and will be translated into twenty other languages around the world. .
“The Christmas Pig”, explains an editorial note, is the moving and exciting story of a child’s love for his favorite toy, a plush pig, and what he is ready to do to find it. It is an original story, unrelated to Rowling’s other works, for children aged 8 and up: “an enchanting tale for the whole family, from the pen of one of the greatest storytellers in the world”.
This is the summary of the plot: Jack loves his stuffed pig. It is always there for him, on good days and bad days. Until, one Christmas Eve, a terrible thing happens: Jack loses his pig. But Christmas Eve is the day of miracles and lost causes, it is the night when everything can come to life … even toys. And Jack’s new puppet, the Christmas Pig (annoying fresh-from-the-shop substitute), has a bold plan. Together they will embark on a magical journey in search of what has been lost and to save the best friend Jack has ever had …
“Christmas Pig” is Rowling’s first children’s novel since Harry Potter and follows her brilliant return to children’s publication with last year’s fairy tale “The Ickabog”, serialized online during lockdown to entertain most. small and later published donating all of its rights to the charity Volant to help those most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The author, with this new story “The Christmas Pig”, “will meet with enthusiasm the audience of her young readers”, explains the international press released by achette Children’s Group.
“A topos of children’s literature reinterpreted by the creative genius of JK Rowling – comments Mariagrazia Mazzitelli, editorial director of Salani, the Italian publisher – One of the most beautiful Christmas stories ever written, full of the irresistible tenderness of childhood in front of the great mystery of loss, a theme always so present in the author’s work. Her affectionate, inexhaustible imagination and compassion for people and loved objects that absorb human feelings is the celebration of the warmth of family, of caring and feeling understood and the authentic sustainability of things “. (of Paolo Martini)