The Harry Potter mania continues this week as adored British writer J. K. Rowling releases “The Tales of Beedle the Bard,” a collection of fairy tales with illustrations by the author herself.

J. K. Rowling does a good deed in more ways than one with the release of “The Tales of Beedle the Bard,” her first book since last year’s fervently awaited (and fervently purchased) “Harry Potter and the Deathly Gallows,” the seventh and final novel in the Harry Potter series.

Readers who have been famished for new Harry Potter material will have their wish come true. The book goes on sale in the United States Thursday, December 4, via Scholastic, for $12.99, the perfect early Christmas gift for fans of the bespectacled wizard boy who came to life in 1997, in Rowling’s first book, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.”

All proceeds will go to The Children’s High Level Group (CHLG), the charity co-founded by Rowling with European parliamentarian Emma Nicholson, for children in need in Eastern Europe. One can only expect the initial first printing of 3.5 million to dry up in no time, as has happened previously with Rowling’s books.

Her “Harry Potter” novels have sold more than 400 million copies in a decade and have been translated into 67 languages. Last summer’s “Deathly Hallows” sold more than 11 million copies in the first twenty-four hours following its release, holding the title of fastest-selling book ever. Rowling only beat her own record, previously held by “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” with 9 million copies sold in the first day of release.

“The Tales of Beedle the Bard” is connected with the Harry Potter universe in that it is mentioned in the final novel, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” and it purports to tell those precise five fairy tales. Only one of those five, “The Tale of the Three Brothers,” was recounted in the novel.

Rowling initially created the book as a gift for close friends, a limited edition of seven copies handwritten and illustrated by her. Each of the seven copies is bound in brown Morocco leather and mounted with different semi-precious stones.

One copy was sold at auction in December 2007 for an amazing $4 million. It was Amazon.com which acquired the handmade book, now the highest selling modern literary manuscript at auction.

One of the six remaining manuscripts will be on view at the New York Public Library until Jan. 4, while another will be on display at the National Library of Scotland.