New JK Rowling book goes on sale around the world

The latest magical tome by J.K. Rowling has started to fly off bookstore shelves. Rowling was launching "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" on Thursday with a tea party for 200 school children at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, where she lives. The author is donating royalties from the book to a charity, which hopes it will raise millions to help vulnerable children. Recession-hit booksellers hope the book - a collection of five fables mentioned in Rowling's saga about boy wizard Harry Potter - will give them a festive boost "We expect it to come straight in at No. 1 and is very likely to be our No. 1 book this Christmas," said Jon Howells of Britain's Waterstone's book store chain. "It's in with a fighting chance of being the best-selling book of the year, even though there are only a few weeks to go.