Julia Donaldson Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of Gruffalo Books
The Gruffalo | (1999) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gruffalo Song and Other Songs | (2001) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gruffalo's Child | (2004) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gruffalo's Child Activity Book | (2009) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gruffalo Magnet Book | (2010) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gruffalo Red Nose Day Book | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
My First Gruffalo: Touch-and-feel book | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gruffalo Colouring Book | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Gruffalo Explorers: The Gruffalo Nature Trail | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Gruffalo Explorers: The Gruffalo Spring Nature Trail | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Gruffalo Explorers: The Gruffalo Summer Nature Trail | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Gruffalo Explorers: The Gruffalo Autumn Nature Trail | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Gruffalo Explorers: The Gruffalo Winter Nature Trail | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Gruffalo Crumble and Other Recipes | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gruffalo Annual 2016 | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gruffalo and Friends Annual 2017 | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gruffalo and Friends Annual 2018 | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gruffalo Spring and Summer Nature Trail | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gruffalo Autumn and Winter Nature Trail | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Say Hello to the Gruffalo | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Gruffalo, What Can You Hear?: Buggy Book | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gruffalo Touch and Feel Book | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Gruffalo, Where Are You? | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gruffalo Carousel Book | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gruffalo: A Push, Pull and Slide Book | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gruffalo and Friends Outdoor Activity Book | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of My First Gruffalo Books
Colours | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Opposites | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Animal Actions | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Numbers | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Gruffalo, What Can You See? | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Hello Gruffalo! | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gruffalo Play | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Can You See? Jigsaw book | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Can You Count? Jigsaw book | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Spot and Say | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Who Lives Here? Lift-the-Flap Book | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Gruffalo Growl | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gruffalo Puppet Book | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gruffalo and Friends Activity Case | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Princess Mirror-Belle Books
Princess Mirror-Belle | (2003) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Princess Mirror-Belle and the Magic Shoes | (2005) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Princess Mirror-Belle and the Flying Horse | (2006) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Princess Mirror-Belle and the Dragon Pox | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Princess Mirror-Belle and the Party Hoppers | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Princess Mirror-Belle and Prince Precious Paws | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Princess Mirror-Belle and the Sea Monster's Cave | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Christmas with Princess Mirror-Belle | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Princess Mirror-Belle and Snow White | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Stick Man Books
Stick Man / Bioran | (2008) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Stick Man Drawing and Colouring Book | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Stick Man Annual 2019 | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Stick Man Family Tree Recipe Book | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Superworm Books
Superworm | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Superworm Sticker Book | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Let's Find Superworm | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Superworm Finger Puppet Book | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Tales from Acorn Wood Books
Hide-and-Seek Pig | (2000) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Rabbit's Nap | (2000) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Fox's Socks | (2000) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Postman Bear | (2000) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tales from Acorn Wood: Three Lift-The-Flap Stories. Julia Donaldson | (2006) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tales from Acorn Wood Activity Book | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Rabbit's Nap and Fox's Socks | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Hide-And-Seek Pig and Postman Bear | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Opposites | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Friends | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tales From Acorn Wood Treasury | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Counting | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Colours | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tales From Acorn Wood Sticker Book | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tales from Acorn Wood Book and Card Game | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tales from Acorn Wood Make and Do | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Cat’s Cookbook | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Squirrel's Snowman | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Mole's Spectacles | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Badger's Band | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of What the Ladybird Heard Books
What the Ladybug Heard | (2009) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
What the Ladybird Heard Read and Play Farm | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
What the Ladybird Heard Next | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
What the Ladybird Heard on Holiday | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
What the Ladybug Heard at the Zoo | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Who's on the Farm? | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
What the Ladybird Heard Next Sticker Book | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
What the Ladybird Heard on Holiday Sticker Book | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The What the Ladybird Heard Cookbook | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
What the Ladybird Heard Adventures | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
What The Ladybird Heard Make & Do | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Who's at the Zoo? | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
What the Ladybird Heard | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
What the Ladybird Heard at Christmas | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Zog Books
Zog | (2010) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Zog Activity Book | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Roar with Zog | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Zog and the Flying Doctors | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Zog Sticker Book | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Zog and the Flying Doctors Sticker Book | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Let's Find Zog | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
The Dinosaur's Diary | (2001) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Giants and the Joneses | (2004) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Jungle House | (2005) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Running on the Cracks | (2009) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Mr Birdsnest and the House Next Door | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Snake Who Came to Stay | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Chapter Books
Bricks for Breakfast | (2004) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Picture Books
Publication Order of Plays
Publication Order of's Songbirds Collections Books
The Trunk and The Skunk and Other Stories | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Bob Bug and Other Stories | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
My Phonics Activity Book | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Ron Rabbit's Egg and Other Stories | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Singing Dad and Other Stories | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Collections
Tim's Bad Mood and Other Stories | (1970) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Twist of Tales | (1999) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Wriggle and Roar!: Rhymes to Join in With | (2004) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Crazy Mayonnaisy Mum | (2005) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Play Time | (2006) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Ox and the Yak and Other Stories | (2009) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
My Cat and Other Stories | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Where Is the Snail and Other Stories | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tadpoles and Other Stories | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Where Were You Bert and Other Stories | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Leroy and Other Stories | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Poems to Perform: A Classic Collection Chosen by the Children's Laureate | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Shuffle and Squelch | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Treasury of Songs | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Story Treasury | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Sugarlump and the Unicorn and Other Stories | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
My Story Treasury | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Spike Says and Other Stories | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
The Room on the Broom Cookbook | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Bug Club Books
Meddlers: The Not-So-Merry-Go-Round | (2010) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Step Inside a Story | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Plays to Act Tyrannosaurus Drip | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Plays to Act Tiddler | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Flash the Dog Dives In! | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Dragon's Tale and Other Beastly Stories | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Machines on the Move | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Missing Milly | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Goha and the Shoes | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Best Bet | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Frog Fight | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Noises Next Door | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Don't Call Me Mum! | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Flash the Dog Bounces In! | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Big Giant, Little Bear | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Bug Club Pro Guided Year 6 The Road to Freedom | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Activity Books
The Princess and the Wizard Sticker Book | (2001) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Princess and the Wizard Activity Book | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Pot of Gold Workbook | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Worm Looks for Lunch Workbook | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Tiddler Activity Book | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Sugarlump and the Unicorn Sticker Book | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Singing Mermaid Sticker Book | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Julia Donaldson's Songbirds: My First Reading and Activity Book | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
My First Animal Fun Sticker Book: Over 250 Stickers! | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
My First 123 Sticker Book: Over 230 Stickers! | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Rhyming Rabbit Sticker Book | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Highway Rat Sticker Activity Book | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Sharing a Shell Sticker Book | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Detective Dog Sticker Book | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Highway Rat Sticker Book | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Tabby McTat Sticker Book | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Room on the Broom Sound Book | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Room on the Broom Party Book | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Monkey Puzzle Make and Do | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Snail and the Whale: Make and Do Book | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Room on the Broom: A Push, Pull and Slide Book | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Room on the Broom Sticker Book | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Singing Mermaid Make and Do | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Snail and the Whale: A Push, Pull and Slide Book | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Smeds and the Smoos Sticker Book | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Tiddler Sticker Activity Book | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Scarecrows' Wedding Sticker Activity Book | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Smartest Giant in Town: A Push, Pull and Slide Book | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Smartest Giant in Town Sticker Activity Book | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Children's Books
One Piece Missing | (2000) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Jumping Jack | (2000) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Magic Jigsaw | (2000) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Trial of Wilf Wolf | (2002) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Midsummer Dream | (2002) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
I Don't Want To! | (2003) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Mermaid and the Octopus | (2006) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Tyrannosaurus Drip Song | (2009) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Where Is the Snail? | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Teaching Notes | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Young Puffin Story Books Books
The Swoose | (1994) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Jenius: The Amazing Guinea Pig | (1996) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Dinosaur's Diary | (2001) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Emily Gravett Picture Books
Wolves | (2005) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Orange Pear Apple Bear | (2006) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Monkey And Me | (2007) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Rabbit Problem | (2009) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Cave Baby | (2010) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Wolf Won't Bite! | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Matilda's Cat | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tidy | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Old Hat | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Cyril and Pat | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Too Much Stuff | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
10 Cats | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
10 Dogs | (2023) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Collins Big Cat Books
Horses’ Holiday | (2005) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
I Want a Pet! | (2005) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Shapes on the Seashore: Band 02A/Red A | (2005) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How to Draw Cartoons: Band 08/Purple | (2006) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Farmer’s Lunch: Band 01A/Pink A | (2009) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Rat Naps: Band 01B/Pink B | (2009) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Morris Plays Hide and Seek | (2010) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Mountain Mona | (2010) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Were They Real?: Band 08/Purple | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Oliver | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Jodie the Juggler | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Great Expectations: Band 15/Emerald | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Midsummer Night's Dream | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Tempest | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Helper Bird: Band 03/Yellow | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Time-Traveller’s Guide to the Bronze Age | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Antony and Cleopatra | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Lonely Penguin | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Woman who Fooled the Fairies | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Olympic Heroes | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Letter to New Zealand | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
If | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Magic Pen | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How The Elephant Got His Trunk | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Lion and the Mouse | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Amazing Adventures of Batbird | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Brave Baby | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Chewy Hughie | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Porridge Pincher | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
What’s Underground | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Journey of Humpback Whales | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Fire! Fire! | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
What Is CGI? | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tod and the Trumpet | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Around the World | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Crunch and Munch | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Building High | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Wild Weather | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
When Arthur Wouldn’t Sleep | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Stone Cutter | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Mary Anning | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Swimming with Dolphins: Band 09/Gold | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Very Wet Dog | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Pet Detectives | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Day Out | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Sneezles | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Living Dinosaurs | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How to be a Pirate | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Monster Mess | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Bart the Shark | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tig in the Dumps | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Pet Detectives: Tortoise Trouble | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Chicken Licken | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Pot of Gold | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
One Night in the Zoo | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Fabulous Creatures – Are they Real? | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Unusual Traditions | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Famous Explorers: Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Catching Flies | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Melrose and Croc Beside the Sea | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Where on Earth? | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Hercules: Superhero | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
I'm Growing a Truck in the Garden | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Puss in Boots | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How to Be a Viking | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Spider McDrew and the Egyptians | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Great Architects | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How to be an Ancient Egyptian | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tara Binns: High-Flying Pilot | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Story of Nian | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Fisherman and his Wife | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Monster in the Mirror | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Bungleman | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Caribbean Carnival | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Spider’s Big Match | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Plants, Pollen and Pollinators | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
You Are Here: Maps and Why We Use Them | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Olympic Games | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tara Binns: Big Idea Engineer | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Early Kings of England | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How to be a Roman | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Flash Harriet and the Mystery of the Fiendish Footprints | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Games Player of Zob | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Boudica | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How to Build a House | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Great Greek Myths | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
As You Like It | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Arabian Desert | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How to be an Ancient Greek | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Shang Dynasty | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The World’s First Women Doctors | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Secret Garden | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Nightmare | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Fearless Flynn and Other Tales | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How to be a Victorian in 16 Easy Stages | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Story of the Suffragettes | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Story of the Electric Guitar | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
King Lear | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Spotlight on Russia | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Bloomsbury Young Readers Books
Publication Order of Anthologies
Flights of Fancy | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Julia Donaldson
Author Julia Donaldson (born in 1948) grew up in a tall Victorian London house with her grandmother, parents, uncle, aunt, younger sister Mary, and kitty Geoffrey (really a prince in disguise). Her and Mary argued over which of them would marry him.
She and her sister were always busy creating imaginary characters and mimicking the real ones, and Julia would write shows and choreograph ballets for the both of them. A wind-up gramophone wafted out Chopin waltzes.
For her fifth birthday, her dad gave her a very fat book titled “The Book of a Thousand Poems”. She loved this book. She read the poems, recited and learned them, and made up some of her own. Even though she wanted to be a poet starting back then, she later decided she would rather go on stage. This didn’t quite work out, so she worked other jobs in publishing and teaching. Somehow she has been able to do what she wanted to when she was just five years old. She has a theory this happens to quite a few people.
She studied both French and Drama at Bristol University, where she met a guitar-playing medic named Malcolm that she’s now married to.
Before she and Malcolm had their family, they used to go busking together, and she’d write special songs for each country. The best one she did was about pasta. This busking led to a career in singing and songwriting, primarily for children’s television. She was an expert at writing to order on subjects like window-cleaning, guinea pigs, and awful smells. She would be asked to write songs about throwing crumpled-up wrapping paper into the bin, something she says was a typical request from the BBC.
Julia continued writing “grown-up” songs and performing them in folk clubs and on the radio, and has released them on CD. One such song, sung by Malcolm and titled “Cochon Blues” was played as one of her picks when she was on a Radio 4 program called Desert Island Discs.
“A Squash and A Squeeze”, one of her television songs, was turned into a book in the year 1993, with illustrations by Axel Scheffler. It was fantastic for Julia to hold the book in her hand without it disappearing into the air the same way the songs would. It prompted her to unearth some plays that she’d written for a school reading group, and since then she has had over forty plays published. Most kids love acting and it is a fantastic way to improve their reading skills.
Her real breakthrough was her book “The Gruffalo”, once again illustrated by Axel. They work separately, with her in Glasgow and him in London, but he sends her letters with lovely and funny pictures on the envelopes.
Julia enjoys writing verse a lot, despite it being incredibly difficult at times. In her younger years, she used to memorize poems and it means a lot to her when parents will tell her their kid is able to recite one of her books.
Oddly enough, she finds it even harder to write not in verse, though has gotten the hang of it and has written stories for teenagers, and older kids.
When she writes a rhyming book, she begins with a pen or a pencil, writing it down in a huge exercise book and doing a bunch of doodles along the way. If the book isn’t going to rhyme, she will write it on the computer.
It can take months or even years for the idea to grow inside her mind and for her to plan the book out. This is a very important part of the process. Then, when she’s ready it could take anywhere between a week (for a picture book) and six months (for a chapter book) to actually write it. It took her a year to plan and get all her ideas together for “The Gruffalo”, obviously she was working on other things as well. The actual writing took her only about two weeks.
Julia finds that the actual writing process is hard work. She often gets stuck, or feel that she’s plodding along in an uninspired way. When she realizes that the story is working, it can be quite an exciting feeling and she loves doing all of the polishing touches at the very end. It is lovely when the first rough illustrations show up and she’s able to get a glimpse at how her characters will look.
She writes in her head while out for a walk or in the bath. She has her own study and sometimes she writes in the library or on trains.
When she isn’t busy writing, she’s often performing, in theaters and book festivals. She really enjoys getting the kids in the audience to help her act out the stories and sing all the songs. Malcolm almost always accompanies her too, with his guitar. It feels to Julia as though they have come full circle, back to busking.
Her hobbies include singing, walking, playing the piano, and cycling. Julia is also interested in fungi and wild flowers.
From 2011-2013, she was the UK Children’s Laureate and has been honored with an MBE for Services to Literature.
“Princess Mirror-Belle” is the first novel in the “Princess Mirror-Belle” series and was released in the year 2003. Ellen gets a huge shock when her exact double appears out of the mirror in the bathroom. Only Mirror-Belle is a double with a difference!
She is a princess, and quite a mischievous one. Whether she is riding the ghost train at the fair, wreaking havoc in some department store, or seeing off bullies in the playground, she is a princess with a purpose. She is out to cause as much trouble as she can.
“Princess Mirror-Belle and the Flying Horse” is the third novel in the “Princess Mirror-Belle” series and was released in the year 2006. Princess Mirror-Belle has returned! Once more, the magically mischievous Mirror-Belle pops out of mirrors to lead Ellen into five funny adventures.
Whether she is telling tall tales about her winged pony, turning herself into the strangest Sleeping Beauty, or hunting for a sea monster’s treasure, her magical mayhem is packed full of fun!
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