The Ickabog Illustration Competition - Get featured in J K Rowling's New Book

Your chance for your child’s illustration to be featured in J.K. Rowling’s new book The Ickabog.

Entries open 29th May 2020.

About The Ickabog Illustration Competition

J.K. Rowling is publishing an original story, The Ickabog (the “Story”), online here, in instalments over seven weeks and is inviting children to help her by illustrating the Story. A new instalment of the Story and illustration themes to go with it will be revealed daily, Monday to Friday, throughout the course of the seven weeks, so do stay tuned.

The first chapters are available to read online now, and the first illustration themes have been revealed here. Entries to the competition will open on Friday 29th May 2020 and the competition will close at 6pm BST on Friday 17th July 2020.

34 winning illustrations will be selected to bring the serialised story to the printed page when it is published in full, which is intended for November 2020. Good luck!

The Prize

This is your chance for your child’s illustration to be featured in The Ickabog. If you are one of the lucky winners, you will also receive a copy of the published Book (the “Book”), signed by the author herself. But that’s not all. We’ll give £500 (or the equivalent in your local currency) worth of Hachette children’s books to a school or public library of your choice.

How to Enter

Entries will open on 29th May 2020. Please read our Illustration Instructions, guidance on How to Enter and, of course, enjoy reading The Ickabog online here. The competition will close at 6pm BST on Friday 17th July 2020.

The process for entering is simple: just follow these guidelines.

Illustrations should be created by children aged 7–12 years old (inclusive) (as of Friday 17th July 2020) and submitted by their parent or guardian. References to "you", "your" or "entrant" in these competition guidelines are references to the parent or guardian submitting the entry.

Before your child begins working on their illustration(s), download the Illustration Instructions. Please ensure you have read the instructions carefully, as incorrectly submitted entries will not be considered.

To enter, you will need to upload a copy of your child’s illustration using the form below, selecting the relevant chapter instalment and illustration theme from the drop-down menus, as well as the age bracket of your child (7–9 or 10–12). More chapter instalments and illustration themes will be added over the course of the seven weeks, as J.K. Rowling reveals them. You can view them here.

Entry to the competition can only happen by submitting an entry in the manner described above in accordance with the competition Terms and Conditions. Sharing your child’s illustration with us on social media, or by any other means, is not a valid form of entry and will not mean that your entry has been submitted.

The competition is free to enter, and submissions can be received from people in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and India.

One illustration can be submitted per chapter instalment, per child, but submissions can be made to as many chapter instalments as you wish. Please note that it will only be possible to have one winning entry per child in respect of the Book.

Keep your child’s illustration(s) in a flat, safe and dry place until the week beginning 27th July 2020 when we will be contacting those shortlisted.

Those shortlisted will be required to send us, the publisher, their original illustration in a condition that is suitable for reproduction (please read the Illustration Instructions) by the specified date. If you are unable to do this, your entry will not be considered further.

The organisers will also need those shortlisted to provide proof of their child’s age (as of Friday 17th July 2020) and to assign the rights (including copyright) for the artwork to us, for inclusion in the Book and for all promotional purposes, by the specified date. For more information, please see Terms and Conditions. Please be assured that if your shortlisted entry is not chosen as a winner, the rights in the artwork will revert to you and organiser will use reasonable efforts to return the original artwork.

All entries will be judged based on a set of skills-criteria and editorial suitability by a panel of book editors and book designers from publisher Hachette Children’s Group, alongside special guest judges: Pam Smy, Senior Lecturer Practitioner, MA Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art at Anglia Ruskin University, and Caroline Carpenter, Deputy Features Editor at The Bookseller magazine. The judges will be using the following skills-criteria (respective to the age of the child): creativity, composition, use of colour, relevance to text, technical ability and editorial suitability.

While J.K. Rowling won’t be judging the competition herself, if you share your child’s illustration on social media with the hashtag #TheIckabog she might share and comment! And if you use #TheIckabog and tag @TheIckabog, your child's illustration might be shared on the official social channels and on the website gallery. Sharing illustrations on social media will not be deemed entry to the competition.

Make sure you have submitted your entry by the deadline of 6pm BST on Friday 17th July 2020.