J.K. Rowling has just released her first new website since the current one launched on 20th December 2016. The new site is aimed at children so doesn’t cover any of the Robert Galbraith novels or A Casual Vacancy and can be found at https://stories.jkrowling.com/. The new location holds a few secrets (with possibly more to come). So join me after the jump to take a look at a few of them.
The first thing that greets you is a prompt to remind you use your curser to scroll around to explore the desk area, right in fron of you is the pin board with notes and drawing on, and if you are quick you will see the photograph of Jo appear from behind a copy of Philosopher’s Stone (taken from the 2020 summer reading).
On the noticeboard are some news items that if clicked on will take you to their own page:
6 October 2020 Quidditch Through the Ages Illustrated Edition published today
10 November 2020 Meet the Ickabog!
If the Jim Kay illustration of Harry in the Sorting Hat is clicked, then you are taken to the Harry Potter section of the website. To the right of this painting is a postcard from Paris (but not he Fantastic beasts one). If you click on this then a text bubble appears:
I spent a year living in Paris, while I was studying for my degree in French and Classics at Exeter University.
Further to the right again past a postcard from London and another from the Forest of Dean is an old rail ticket dated 1990 from Manchester to London. If the ticket is pressed then this text bubble appears:
I was on a train from Manchester to London when I came up with the idea for Harry Potter. The train was delayed, and as I sat there, all the details of a black-haired, bespectacled boy-wizard just bubbled up in my brain…
Below the rail ticket is the badge of Clan Murray.
Next to the left on the second row is a wonderful illustration of Daisy Dovetail drawn by 12 year old Lucy from Connecticut. If this is clicked then you go to the Ickabog area.
Further to the left is a polaroid of her West Highland terrier Bronte and it reveals:
My two West Highland terriers are called Bronte and Emma.
Below this we have another of Jim Kays illustrations, this time for the flying Ford Anglia and the moving GIF image of Jo.
Then in the last row of the notice board is a pen and ink sketch of the Ickabog, that I think may be by J. K. Rowling herself (let me know in the comments if you have a better attribution). If you press on this picture you are again taken to the Ickabog area.
After a picture of a horse and an enamel Hogwarts pin is J. K. Rowling’s drawing of Harry’s first arrival in Privet drive and a drawing of the Ickabog by Elias age 10 from Ireland. This drawing takes you to the Ickabog competition page.
The Hogwarts sleuths are continuing to study the new site so please stay tuned for more analysis tomorrow (we have only just covered the noticeboard!).
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