Eric and I read and listen to a LOT of kids fiction. Over the past three months alone we have read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, The Tale of Despereaux, The Rescuers, Henry and the Paper Route, The Wishmakers, The Wishbreakers, Artimis Fowl and the Lost Colony, The Cat Who Came in Off the Roof, Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard, every Dog Man book, and--most recently, The Ickabog.
While Eric has enjoyed all of these stories very much, and I've enjoyed at least half of them, I have to admit that some of them weren't exactly what I would call riveting. But The Ickabog by J.K. Rowling is the best book I have read in a long time. I don't even mean best kids book--I truly loved it, and probably kept Eric up later than I should have each evening because I wanted to find out what happened next.
We found The Ickabog just browsing the shelves at the library the day before we left for Whistler. I thought the cover looked interesting, but I had low expectations. While we are all huge Harry Potter fans, I haven't really liked anything J.K. Rowling has written (or co-written) since that series.
But, while I was waiting for the kids to choose books and do a scavenger hunt at the library, I started reading about the book. I learned that J.K. Rowling had told the story to her own children and written it on and off while she was working on Harry Potter, then put it aside while taking a break from writing. I was fascinated to read that she had finished it up and released it online during Covid lockdowns to give kids something to do--and even had children create illustrations for the story, which were then published throughout the book. I also discovered that all proceeds from the book were being donated to charity.
Then I started reading. After the first chapter, I knew Eric would love it, so that night we took a break from whatever we were reading and gave it a try. After that, we read it as much as we could as often as possible. I downloaded an electronic version so we could read it easily while on holiday. We read in the morning as well as at night--and anytime during the day when we were waiting for someone to finish something or just had nothing else to do.
We finished this morning. I couldn't read the last line aloud because I was too choked up (luckily Eric can read now and finished it off for me), and later in the day, Eric said it was "even better than Harry Potter." Not a declaration that happens often in this house!
I still like HP better, but I think The Ickabog is just as well written and captivating. I loved the way the story unfolded, drawing us into its fairytale world. The characters were interesting, the plot suspenseful, and the sentences perfectly crafted. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes to read (Alaina is already on Chapter 3!). Hopefully you will enjoy it as much as we did.
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