An illustration by Petra Demas, 10, of Great Falls is among the 34 drawings to be published in the North American edition of J.K. Rowling’s new book, The Ickabog. The drawings were chosen from among 42,000 illustrations by children ages 7 to 12 from across the United States and Canada.
Petra, a fourth-grader at Forestville Elementary School, is an award-winning illustrator, who has been fascinated by animals since she was a toddler, when she started watching BBC’s Planet Earth. From catching wild salmon with her bare hands in Alaska to going on a night hunt with lionesses in South Africa to snorkeling with reef sharks and sting rays in French Polynesia, she has experienced the magnificence of the animal kingdom in very real and impactful ways. Over the last few years, she has become increasingly concerned about climate change and declining populations of many animal species. She is also intrigued by the ability of animals to camouflage in their natural environments.
Amidst the stresses of Covid-19 shutdowns during the summer of 2020, Petra developed a coloring book, finding new joy and adventures. She discovered that her anxiety levels decreased significantly and she was happiest when drawing, coloring, or learning about animals. Consequently, she created Masters of Camouflage and Endangered Animals: Animal Coloring Book for All Ages, which has been available through Amazon and other outlets since September.
Also during 2020, famed Harry Potter novelist J.K. Rowling released for free online the serialization of The Ickabog, an original fairy tale, which she wrote over ten years ago as a bedtime story for her younger children. She decided to share the personal family favorite to help entertain children, parents and caregivers confined at home during the Coronavirus lockdown.
In an announcement on her website, Rowling said she had started working on the book more than a decade ago, while she was still writing Harry Potter, and originally intended to publish it after she finished the last book in the beloved series. But she ended up keeping The Ickabog, which isn’t related to the Harry Potter stories or any of Rowling’s other work, in her family, reading it to her young children and then putting it away in her attic until recently.
She decided to release The Ickabog this year in several weekly installments, she wrote on Twitter, “so children on lockdown, or even those back at school during these strange, unsettling times, can read it or have it read to them.” Rowling said she would donate her royalties for the book to causes related to the coronavirus pandemic.
As new installments of the story and illustration themes were released, children aged 7 to 12 drew, painted, and created 42,142 pictures, which their parents and guardians entered the competition for a chance for their child’s artwork to be published in the printed book, which was published in November 2020. Each of the 34 winners has been awarded a copy of the published book containing their artwork, signed by J.K. Rowling, and a donation of new children’s books worth $650 for the school or library of the winner’s choice.