British author J. K. Rowling knows how to treat her fans with a special gift, such as a handwritten and personally illustrated book of fairy tales.

J. K. Rowling, author of the universally popular Harry Potter books, has a special gift for her avid readers, which she calls a thank you present. The author announced that a limited number of books that she wrote and illustrated herself, by hand, titled “The Tales of Beedle the Bard,” were created shortly after she finished the last book in the Harry Potter series.

This literary effort contains five fairy tales, inspired by the Harry Potter universe. “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” is mentioned in Rowling’s last Potter book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” as a special gift left by Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore to Hermione. The great wizard’s gift actually provides clues that help destroy the evil Lord Voldemort.

On her official website, Rowling said that the idea of making these special thank you gifts for the people “most closely involved with Harry Potter over the years” came to her after she had finished “The Deathly Hallows.”

“Nothing shop-bought seemed personal enough,” the 42-year-old author writes in a message posted Thursday, Nov. 1. She therefore set about to make up the three stories mentioned in her final Potter book: “The Fountain of Fair Fortune,” “The Wizard and the Hopping Pot,” “Babbity Rabbitty and her Cackling Stomp.”

(She humorously comments, “If anyone thinks it was easy coming up with a tale called Babbity Rabbitty and her Cackling Stomp,” let me disabuse them here.)

To these three fables she added “The Warlock’s Hairy Heart” and “The Tale of the Three Brothers,” which has already been told.

“‘The Tales of Beedle the Bard’ is really a distillation of the themes found in the Harry Potter books, and writing it has been the most wonderful way to say goodbye to a world I have loved and lived in for 17 years,” Rowling said in a statement.

Only seven copies exist of this special collection of tales, Rowling said Thursday. Six have been given already, while the seventh one will be auctioned at Sotheby’s in London next month to raise money for a children's charity, The Children’s Voice.

All seven books are leather-bound and embellished with silver and different semi-precious stones, she specified on her website. The one to be auctioned is the Moonstone edition. All profits will go to The Children’s Voice. The starting price is reportedly $62,000.