New J K Rowling book announced

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Anonymous

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Yay!

The Christmas Pig will be out on 12 October. The cover hasn't been revealed yet.

"Bursting with festive charm and imagination, this magical adventure written by J.K. Rowling and illustrated by Jim Field, revolves around a boy’s determined quest to find his missing toy pig before Christmas Day.

One boy and his toy are about to change everything…

Jack loves his childhood toy, Dur Pig. DP has always been there for him, through good and bad. Until one Christmas Eve something terrible happens – DP is lost. But Christmas Eve is a night for miracles and lost causes, a night when all things can come to life… even toys. And Jack’s newest toy – the Christmas Pig (DP’s annoying replacement) – has a daring plan: Together they’ll embark on a magical journey to seek something lost, and to save the best friend Jack has ever known…

A heartwarming, page-turning adventure about one child’s love for his most treasured thing, and how far he will go to find it. A tale for the whole family to fall in love with, from one of the world’s greatest storytellers.

A gorgeously gifty hardback, with full-colour jacket and featuring 9 black and white spreads and decorative inside art from renowned illustrator, Jim Field.
Publisher: Hachette Children's Group
ISBN: 9781444964912
Number of pages: 320
Dimensions: 240 x 156 mm"

 
 
"Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, Not Slytherin, not Slytherin. “Not Slytherin, eh?” said the small voice. ... You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that — no? Well, if you're sure — better be GRYFFINDOR!”
 
Why do adults read these children’s books? Middlebrow trash.

Stephen King had this to say about that:

4. There’s been a lot of discussion — some of it pretty warm — about whether or not kids, especially those under the age of 10, should be reading these novels, which contain vivid scenes of grief, terror, death, and even torture. What’s your take on this?

My take on it is my mother’s, actually. She used to say, “If they’re old enough to understand what they’re reading and to enjoy what they’re understanding, leave ’em alone — it keeps ’em out from underfoot.” I also subscribe to her corollary: “If it gives ’em nightmares, take it away.”

The first couple of Potters were PGs. Azkaban and Goblet of Fire were PG-13s, and Phoenix makes it under the PG-13 by the skin of its teeth… or its fangs. Would I give these books to my own kids, were they still 9, 7, and 5? Yes, and without hesitation. The suspense here is never prurient; the scares are more than balanced off by the simple decency of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. If teaching life lessons is one of the jobs books do, then the Potter novels teach some fine ones about how to behave under pressure. And Rowling never preaches. Harry and his friends strike me as real children, not proto-Christian tin gods out of a Sunday-school comic book. Hogwarts School is a long way from Bob Jones University, which is one of the reasons right-wingers decry the books.

A more interesting question is when did Ms. Rowling stop writing the stories for children and start writing them for everyone, as Mark Twain did when he moved from Tom Sawyer to Huckleberry Finn and Lewis Carroll did when he moved from Alice in Wonderland to Through the Looking-Glass? I’m guessing it was a process — mostly subconscious — that began with volume 3 (Azkaban) and hit warp speed in volume 4 (Goblet of Fire). By the time we finish The Order of the Phoenix, with its extraordinary passages of fear and despair, the distinction between “children’s literature” and plain old “literature” has ceased to exist. The latest Potteradventure could be The Catcher in the Rye, minus the dirty words and the drinking.. .or maybe just the dirty words: Just what the hell is butterbeer, anyway?

 
Stephen King had this to say about that:

4. There’s been a lot of discussion — some of it pretty warm — about whether or not kids, especially those under the age of 10, should be reading these novels, which contain vivid scenes of grief, terror, death, and even torture. What’s your take on this?

My take on it is my mother’s, actually. She used to say, “If they’re old enough to understand what they’re reading and to enjoy what they’re understanding, leave ’em alone — it keeps ’em out from underfoot.” I also subscribe to her corollary: “If it gives ’em nightmares, take it away.”

The first couple of Potters were PGs. Azkaban and Goblet of Fire were PG-13s, and Phoenix makes it under the PG-13 by the skin of its teeth… or its fangs. Would I give these books to my own kids, were they still 9, 7, and 5? Yes, and without hesitation. The suspense here is never prurient; the scares are more than balanced off by the simple decency of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. If teaching life lessons is one of the jobs books do, then the Potter novels teach some fine ones about how to behave under pressure. And Rowling never preaches. Harry and his friends strike me as real children, not proto-Christian tin gods out of a Sunday-school comic book. Hogwarts School is a long way from Bob Jones University, which is one of the reasons right-wingers decry the books.

A more interesting question is when did Ms. Rowling stop writing the stories for children and start writing them for everyone, as Mark Twain did when he moved from Tom Sawyer to Huckleberry Finn and Lewis Carroll did when he moved from Alice in Wonderland to Through the Looking-Glass? I’m guessing it was a process — mostly subconscious — that began with volume 3 (Azkaban) and hit warp speed in volume 4 (Goblet of Fire). By the time we finish The Order of the Phoenix, with its extraordinary passages of fear and despair, the distinction between “children’s literature” and plain old “literature” has ceased to exist. The latest Potteradventure could be The Catcher in the Rye, minus the dirty words and the drinking.. .or maybe just the dirty words: Just what the hell is butterbeer, anyway?

Real life for billions of children contain more "vivid scenes of grief, terror, death, and even torture" than Harry Potter's books. If you actually want to protect your children try to change the world we live in.
 
"The Christmas Pig: A Family Event With J K Rowling

Join one of our finest storytellers as she launches her new children’s book The Christmas Pig – a heart-warming, page-turning adventure about one child’s love for his most treasured thing, and how far he will go to find it.

J.K. Rowling will be signing copies of The Christmas Pig after the event – one book per attendee."

More info here:

 
"The Christmas Pig: A Family Event With J K Rowling

Join one of our finest storytellers as she launches her new children’s book The Christmas Pig – a heart-warming, page-turning adventure about one child’s love for his most treasured thing, and how far he will go to find it.

J.K. Rowling will be signing copies of The Christmas Pig after the event – one book per attendee."

More info here:

My god they're going to need a lot of security at that event, given all of the people who apparently (on Twitter) want to kill JKR because of her views on the transgender issue.
 
Review: No spoilers below:

"The Christmas Pig by JK Rowling review: her best book since Azkaban
The Harry Potter author gives us her Christmas Carol, and it’s a triumph, writes Amanda Craig

Rowling’s imagination has always tended towards the Dickensian, not just in the sense of an energetically imagined universe peopled with eccentrics, but in its emotional intelligence. Here, she has given us her Christmas Carol, and the result is a triumph. Her style is unremarkable compared to that of Philip Pullman, Alan Garner, Terry Pratchett and Dickens himself, yet the clarity, warmth, sympathy and propulsion of her stories are exactly what a child enjoys. Above all, she is a mistress of suspense. When the climax came, in a scene where Jack must choose between hope and despair, I burst into tears."

 
About H.P: I've recently noticed that the acronym for Defence Against the Dark Arts is D.A.D.A. For my thesis I need to know if that was accidental or if Ms R. did that purely to amuse people.

Perhaps JK could tell M next time she sees him on an escalator and he could tell Ketamine Sun and s/he could tell us?

Cheers in advance.
 
"Rowling's Christmas Pig jingles all the way to number one

J K Rowling's The Christmas Pig (Little, Brown) has flown directly into the Official UK Top 50 number one spot, selling 60,010 copies in its first week on sale. The title is Rowling's 16th book to chart in the number one spot, including the five-part Cormoran Strike series, written as Robert Galbraith, and her 85th week in the top spot overall since Nielsen records began in 1998."

 
The Christmas Pig is still number 1:



The Harry Potter series is also number 1. This series has been on The New York Times list for 657 weeks/12.6 years.

 
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