Spinderella: The perfect illustrated children’s picture book for Halloween, from the author of The Gruffalo and Tales From Acorn Wood!

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In this vibrant counting book, one mole digging a hole is soon joined by a troupe of gardening friends, including nine doves in gardening gloves and ten bees pruning trees.

Spinderella - Julia Donaldson Spinderella - Julia Donaldson

Sebastien Braun was born in Strasbourg, the hometown of Gustav Doré and Tomi Ungerer (his heroes). As a child he spent countless hours drawing, but at secondary school there were no art classes, so he filled his homework with doodles and portraits of his teachers. At university he initially studied history – fortunately, the building was shared with the art department, and when he saw the students sketching, knew he had to change. After that, he spent a few years teaching applied art to sixth formers, before taking the plunge as a freelance illustrator. His first commissions were for magazines in Paris, and when he moved to London, he developed his portfolio for children's books. An uneven match of 7 v 3 sees the team with more players comfortable winners and inspires Spinderella to learn to count. This is a story about a spider called Spinderella who wants to learn about numbers but her family dismiss her desire as they don't think learning to count is important. Then, a hairy godmother arrives to make Spinderella's dream of learning numbers come true and she is finally able to show her family the benefits of counting through a game of football. 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. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him). Spinderella wants nothing more than to be able to count and you'd think that living in a primary school with her mother and siblings that it would all come naturally but not so. Spinderella is left out of the equation and her family aren't interested in numbers at all. But all is not lost, her Hairy Godmother appears and guides her towards the wonderful world of numbers much to Spinderella's delight and, ultimately, her family too.The cover of this book is so beautifully illustrated that I really hoped the remainder of the book would be so pretty, but actually the illustrations let this one down a little bit. The story on the other hand, about Spinderella the spider who likes to play football with her brothers and sisters (of which there are many!) is a brilliant way of helping small children with numbers. Before Malcolm and I had our three sons we used to go busking together and I would write special songs for each country; the best one was in Italian about pasta. To be honest, this isn't one of my favourite Julia Donaldson books. It doesn't have the same flow and flair that she usually showcases.

Spinderella: The perfect illustrated children’s picture book for Spinderella: The perfect illustrated children’s picture book for

This one outlines the adventures of a young spider who lives with her woman-headed family in a school and wishes to learn numeracy. She doesn't get a lot of family support but goes on to prove them all wrong, with the help of her hairy godmother. The small spider is obsessed with numbers but all her other nine siblings only show an intrest in football, whilst her mother is more concerned with her children eating flys. A little girl makes a string of paper dolls with her mother, and then takes them off to play in an imaginative world of her own - until a pair of scissors threaten. I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married.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. Cute, non-stereotypical and creative offering (as usual) from Julia Donaldson. Although she is so prolific her stories are well thought out and enjoyable -also she does not have a formula that I can detect.