New JK Rowling Book Flies off Bookstore Shelves

Okay, the books don't really have wings. But they seem to be flying off bookstore shelves. Harry Potter fans are snapping up copies of Rowling's "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" beginning today. 

Rowling's Book Supports Children's Charity

Rowling is donating all royalties from the book to a charity that helps children, the Children's High Level Group. She co-founded the group to help institutionalized children in Eastern Europe. "About 80,000 children, many disabled or from oppressed ethnic minorities such as the Roma, live in state institutions in Romania, Moldova, Georgia, the Czech republic and Armenia," says the charity's director, Georgette Mulheir in the Guardian.co.uk.

The Tales may sound a bit familiar to Harry Potter fans. "There was once a kindly old wizard who used his magic generously and wisely for the benefit of his neighbours" begins her first story in the book.

Some call the book the unofficial farewell to the adventures of the our favorite wizard Harry Potter. Rowling considers it a distillation of the themes from her previous Harry Potter books. The book is a collection of five fairy stories Rowling had written and illustrated as a gift for six close friends.