If Donaldson’s books feel timely, it’s because their messages are ultimately timeless: decency, empathy, humour. “So many of Julia’s stories are about kindness,” Scheffler said. Donaldson has railed against what she calls “books as medicine” – children’s publishing’s tendency towards books with an obvious social message, such as feminism or the climate crisis. “I think now people are doing these terribly message-y books,” Donaldson told me. “I’m just as feminist as anyone else, but you know there are now lots of books to show that girls can be feisty.” She balks at the idea of picture books as activism. “Even if its message was something I really care about, like saving the planet, I probably wouldn’t do it unless I had a really juicy idea.” This book tells the story of Tiddler, a little grey fish who is never on time but has always got a story as to why.

I really enjoy writing verse, even though it can be fiendishly difficult. I used to memorise poems as a child and it means a lot to me when parents tell me their child can recite one of my books. Identify all of the rhyming words that are used in the story. Can you think of other words that rhyme with these?In her laureate role Donaldson has campaigned passionately against library cuts and closures, writing articles, meeting ministers and – with Malcolm Donaldson – embarking on a 6-week tour of UK libraries in autumn 2012. In all of the 38 libraries the visiting children were requested to perform a short play or song based on a picture book, as well as joining in Donaldson's own stories and songs. The tour was designed to celebrate libraries but also to generate publicity about the plight of some of them. [ citation needed] Personal life [ edit ] Despite not knowing the moral of the story, this is a fascinating book and as I read it, I found myself wondering what would happen next. A typical public event consists of acting out (more or less word-for-word) four stories, and singing three or four songs (mostly from Donaldson's three albums of songs – The Gruffalo Song and Other Songs, Room on the Broom and Other Songs and The Gruffalo's Child and Other Songs). There is always a strong element of audience participation, with children (and sometimes their parents) invited on stage to act parts in the stories. Malcolm Donaldson almost always takes part in the events, and they are also often joined by other performers including family members. Children’s shows make me smile, this one made me CONTINUALLY GRIN. A children’s treat that adults too can guiltlessly enjoy.’ A Younger Theatre

Before I left, I asked Donaldson if she ever thought, of an evening, about the millions of children going to sleep listening to her stories, or learning to read from her words. She seemed slightly embarrassed by the question. “The nicest thing is that I hope that I’m part of a chain, and that some of those children will write,” she said. Many already send her the stories they’ve written. “I got a really good one the other day. Even the rhyme scheme was good.” Donaldson smiled. “That’s just a really nice thought, to feel like I’m helping to pass that on.” Under the sea, out on the farm and into the jungle, these terrific tales weave together a whole host of colourful characters from Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s best-loved titles: This book doesn't seem very popular in Iowa, neither among libraries nor book stores, so I had to borrow it through an interlibrary loan (read: for a very short time). And that's disappointing, because the book is spectacular! I count it as one of the best books by the author. We read it at bedtime all nine evenings we had it. Donaldson is obsessed with scansion – where the stresses fall in a line. That, too, is influenced by her years of songwriting. “A tune won’t come into my head when I’m writing a picture book, but a rhythm does,” Donaldson said. Someone from another publisher happened to see my publishing schedule,” Donaldson told me. “They said: ‘That’s more than the number of books we do altogether – for everyone.’”Walsh, John (3 October 2015). "Julia Donaldson interview: The Gruffalo author on how Judi Dench and busking helped her career". The Independent . Retrieved 12 April 2020. The room where the children’s author Julia Donaldson writes – the heart of her vast picture book empire – is down a winding staircase, in the cellar of her grand white house in Steyning, West Sussex. Her desk looks out on the street at knee height. “I’m thinking of writing a book about legs,” Donaldson said, as she showed me around the house this summer. Children from the nearby school often wave in at her as they pass. Donaldson is well known in Steyning, due to her frequent signings at the local bookshop. She and her husband, Malcolm, a retired paediatrician, recently bought the local post office to save it from closure. But elsewhere she can walk the pavement without being recognised. “I got a letter the other day for Jacqueline Wilson,” Donaldson told me. “It said: ‘You’re my favourite author!’” Write a story about one of the other sea creatures shown in the illustrations. Could you write a story about one of Tiddler’s school friends? Sometimes it makes me feel slightly dizzy to think of all the children who are reading those books every day with their parents,” Scheffler said. “It’s such an intimate thing, and still we are kind of there.” An hour-long feast of storytelling that thrills children and parents alike. A MASTERPIECE.’ Broadway Baby

The initial illustrator for A Squash and a Squeeze fell through, so Wilson suggested her boyfriend, a German illustrator named Axel Scheffler. The collaboration nearly failed at the start: Methuen initially felt Scheffler’s sketches were too intimidating. “My little old lady would have been a little more spiky. They said: ‘It needs to be more joyous’,” Scheffler told me when we spoke. “Maybe I was just too obedient. I should have said no.” Tiddler is one of those special stories that seem to capture children’s attention immediately and keep it for the duration, while making them laugh a great deal throughout. Tiddler, the star of the book, is a little fish with a penchant for telling wild stories, usually involving some feat of heroism on his part. When Tiddler finds himself in very apparent danger, however, the reality seems much less enjoyable than the fiction. One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading. In 1974, she sent a tape of children’s songs to the BBC, and was commissioned to write music for the children’s TV series Play Away. “I really wanted to be a presenter,” Donaldson told me. “I did have an audition and didn’t get it. They said: ‘Why don’t you just keep on with the writing?’” Songwriting was irregular work, so Donaldson took a series of jobs in publishing and radio, eventually landing as a teacher in a private girl’s school in Brighton. “The girls thought I was the bee’s knees, because all the other teachers were very ancient and traditional,” she said. Even after she quit teaching following the birth of her first child, Hamish, she continued to volunteer at schools, running drama clubs and writing musicals for children. Brings such joy to children and adults alike. The show was so captivating that no one wanted to miss a moment’ ( The Spy in the Stalls)

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Tiddler's tall tales were so legendary that other fish told them at home to their grandmas and they pass it on to others. But it makes no difference, Tiddler is still late each day; on the second day of the week, he says he was swimming with a mermaid and captured by a squid. And once again the cry goes up 'TIDDLER'S LATE'. The books flatter you into thinking that you’re absolutely brilliant at reading,” Martin Pope, the co-founder of Magic Light Pictures, which produces the animated films of Donaldson’s work, told me. “Not only is each line beautifully written so that you can feel the rhythm of it, it’s very clear how to read it, and where the jokes are.”

Imagine that you could go diving underwater. What might you see? What words could you use to describe things? Watch this video to get some ideas: In 1989 Malcolm was appointed to Glasgow University as senior lecturer in child health and the family, now five following the arrival of Jerry in 1987, moved to Bearsden. Donaldson composed two musicals for children: King Grunt's Cake (1976) and Pirate on the Pier (1980) which she and a small cast performed both in London and Brighton. Influenced by their Bristol Street Theatre experience, Donaldson ran a Saturday-morning workshop for children in Portslade from 1974 to 1976. During these sessions a simple play would be devised, followed by making of props and costumes, rehearsal and then a performance. Rix, Juliet (28 February 2009). "Living without Hamish: how a family copes with suicide". The Guardian.She’s got this great authenticity when she performs,” her longtime illustrator Axel Scheffler told me. “Children see that and love it. There is still something – not improvised, but you can see they’re not professional actors.” She studied drama at Bristol University, and in 1969 spent a summer studying in Paris with a friend. Malcolm, then a medical student and a friend-of-the-friend, joined them. The group made money busking. Malcolm played guitar and Julia sang, covers mostly, but increasingly songs of her own – little ditties in French, a song in Italian about pasta – designed to amuse the crowd. Throughout the early 70s, they spent holidays busking across Europe and the US and performing street theatre. (They wed in 1972; Donaldson composed an operetta for the occasion.) In 1977, she and Malcolm recorded an album, First Fourteen, containing some of their early songs, which have a folksy, absurdist charm, reminiscent of early Monty Python. Find out how stories are passed on throughout history. Do you know any very old stories that are still told today? How have they changed over the years? Tiddler explains hat happened and not everyone believes him, but still the stoy speads until it gets to a writer, which is how the book was written. Once in Glasgow, Donaldson 'pitched' once again for song-writing commissions with the BBC. Between 1990 and 1994 she wrote for various programmes including Thinkabout Science (two series) and Playdays, composing songs for presenters and puppets (such as Lizzie and the Whybird) to sing.