J.K. Rowling to Publish a Book for Charity

Author J. K. Rowling announced on Thursday that she will publish a book of fairy tales in December and donate $4 million in proceeds to her charity for children living in large residential institutions, Reuters reports.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which will be published on December 4, is mentioned in the final installment of the Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In the seventh Potter book, Professor Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, leaves the book for Harry's friend, Hermione Granger.

Initially, Rowling produced only seven copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, bound in brown Moroccan leather and decorated in silver and moonstones.

Rowling gave six of the copies to people who were closely connected to the Potter books. The seventh book was auctioned off and bought in December by Amazon.com Inc. for about $4 million.

Bloomsbury Publishing and Scholastic will publish editions with an introduction by Rowling, selling for $12.99. Amazon will produce up to 100,000 collector's edition copies, which will aim to replicate the look and feel of the original book and sell for $100.

In a statement to reporters, Rowling said, "The new edition will include the Tales themselves, translated from the original runes by Hermione Granger, and with illustrations by me, but also notes by Professor Albus Dumbledore, which appear by generous permission of the Hogwarts Headmasters' Archive."

Proceeds from the book will be donated to the Children's High Level Group, a charity that was founded by Rowling in 2005 to help the one million children across Europe who still live in large residential institutions.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard collect five stories in the 157-page book; however, only one, The Tale of the Three Brothers, is told in the Potter novels. It appears in the final installment of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.