Your child will giggle their way through this comic tale of three very bad, silly, and completely hopeless storybook characters who dare each other to steal a hanky-chief from a young girl walking through their woods. Each individual attempt was met with a surprise act from their neighbor, and the results was complete failure by the baddies. Julia and Axel are the team that have created picture book favourites such as The Gruffalo, Stick Man, Zog and Highway Rat - all of which have been made into animated films premiering on BBC1 Christmas Day. I really enjoy getting the children in the audience to help me act out the stories and sing the songs.

The Baddies by Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler | Waterstones The Baddies by Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler | Waterstones

The witch, troll, and ghost are more silly than scary, making this an ideal Halloween read-aloud for the early elementary grades. The baddies devise different ways to scare her but are unsuccessful as she shows them kindness and understanding. I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married. One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. Published just in time for Halloween, I had great hopes for this story featuring a ghost and a witch (and a troll).I was intrigued to see that the Ghost was very much drawn in the style of Jacob Marley from Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'. I liked this book - the rhymes and rhythms were almost consistent - a few areas where the scansion didn't work for me. Of course, the little mouse saves the day and rids the woods of our pesky villains, and we all sleep more soundly at night. Famous for her use of rhyming verse, Julia Donaldson CBE is one of the most popular children's authors of our time and it's easy to see why.

The Baddies by Julia Donaldson | WHSmith The Baddies by Julia Donaldson | WHSmith

We want a song about throwing crumpled-up wrapping paper into the bin” was a typical request from the BBC. They are always so much fun to read with the little people in my life and the illustrations are always bright, cheerful and fun. My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old.The drawings as ever are full of characterful mischief and children will find much to see in them - a Gruffalo lurking on a page, for example. I was very interested to see a ghost on the cover and throughout who bares resemblance with Marley’s Ghost from Dickens’ famous tale - I think it’s amazing that when the young children come across A Christmas Carol (which the majority in England will due to the GCSE spec) they might recognise the ghost after having The Baddies as a staple household item. It's decent enough, with bright illustrations, some good rhymes and a brown skinned girl on the front (instead of the usual pink), but this is a mid-range effort in the Donaldson/Scheffler canon.

The Baddies: a wickedly funny picture book from the creators of The The Baddies: a wickedly funny picture book from the creators of

I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise.My only question is why are the endpapers purple with white polka dots, when the handkerchief that was the main element in the story was blue with white polka dots?