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J K Rowling's The Christmas Pig cover revealed
Illustrator Jim Field's cover for J K Rowling’s new book for children, The Christmas Pig (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), has been revealed.
Field has illustrated the full colour, gold-foiled jacket and the decorative cover beneath. He has also illustrated nine black and white spreads and design features for the interior, some of which will be revealed as part of the pre-publication campaign. The book was first announced in April.
The Christmas Pig will be published on 12th October 2021 in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and India by Hachette Children’s Group, in the US and Canada by Scholastic, as an audiobook in the English language by Audible, and in 35 translated languages by other publishers. It will be published in hardback, priced at £20, with the e-book retailing for £9.99. The audiobook will be simultaneously published by Audible in English, German, French, Italian, Latin American Spanish, Castilian Spanish and Japanese.
The story follows Jack and his attempts to retrieve his childhood toy, Dur Pig. “The Christmas Pig is a heart-warming, page-turning adventure about one child’s love for his most treasured toy, and how far he will go to find it,” Hachette Children’s Group said. “It’s a standalone story, unrelated to any of J K Rowling’s previous work, and is suitable for children aged eight and above: a tale for the whole family to fall in love with, from one of the world’s greatest storytellers.”
Rowling praised Field’s work, saying: “Jim’s illustrations are simply perfect. It really is as though he got inside my head and drew what he saw there. I gasped out loud when I saw one particular illustration — I can’t say which it is without giving spoilers — because it was such a perfect representation of one of my favourite scenes.”
Field commented: “It was ever so slightly daunting when I thought about the number of people who are going to see this cover around the world.
“I wanted to create something filmic, timeless, that captures the excitement of J K Rowling's incredible story and the wonder of Christmas, where the adventure begins. It is really a dream project and I’m so chuffed to be part of it.”
The book follows Rowling's return to publishing for children with last year’s fairytale The Ickabog, which was serialised online for free in lockdown and then published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers with all her royalties donated to her charitable trust Volant.
