Ickabog derives from Ichabod which means without glory, or rather, more precisely, it means “the glory is gone.”

This story goes back to the glorious years of Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling told her children, but never came to a conclusion.

Ickabog later ended up in the attic following the decision not to write another children’s book after the prolific universally known saga, and remained there for a long time.

In fact, the days of the lockdown, and the desire to do something, inspired the idea of publishing it for free online to make it available to all children, asking them to draw the illustrations.

In fact, a real competition was born for young artists between seven and twelve years old, after which a jury selected 34 drawings. 

In the Italian publication edited by Salani, the illustrations are different but just as beautiful.

Each winner received a copy of the book signed by the author, and had the right to indicate a school or a library for a donation of books with an indicative value of 500 euros from the publisher.

The story can be read in one breath, and personally I have found many adaptable connections to current events, perhaps because the glory unfortunately does not stop going away, or perhaps because the characters without glory continue to poison the nations just as it happens in the kingdom of Cornucopia. 

Obviously, my favorite character is Margherita.