Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! 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. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers. The story, whilst there are some advanced aspects to its telling, is suitable for three to eight years olds, which is made possible by the inclusion of cross curricular traits. There are some lovely adjectives, a wide variety of connectives and rhyming words for the children to investigate. What’s this?” he said. He took his finger and very carefully, rubbed at the little purple spot. “OWWWWWWWWW!” he said. “It bit me!” But if I do that, she will still disappear!” said Arthur. “That will be just the same, won’t it? If I rub her out, I won’t be able to paint her again. I might paint a different antelope, but she wouldn’t be exactly the same one. That would be just like if a dinosaur ate me, and then Mum and Dad thought, well it’s ok, we’ve still got Digby. He’s a little boy too.”

Just then, as he was about to call his big brother Arthur, the dinosaur took one beady little eye and turned it towards Digby. He heard a tiny ROAR! like the sound of someone’s television on a different floor. Could it have been his dinosaur? He didn’t dare touch the mouth…Arthur very carefully painted a big bowl of porridge, just like Digby’s, except this time he covered it in strawberries and chocolate sauce. He thought a tiger would not be able to resist a big bowl of porridge, especially when it was covered with strawberries and chocolate sauce. Well, I’ve seen people eating paper before, you know, when they accidentally bite a cupcake wrapper or even a sweet wrapper. It doesn’t taste too bad, you know. It’s just kind of like eating nothing. So maybe you could do it. Just eat the tiger, and leave the pretty antelope alone.”

Daddy came in and looked at them. His smile was huge, because he thought they were so good. “I’d like to put them on the fridge,” he said. So when he saw the peoples' troubles, he would use his magic paintbrush to help. Then many people knew about the magic paintbrush.She said she would love to come and visit our school so we could ask her, her mum, the old man and the Emperor some questions. The tiger’s little beady eyes seemed to swivel. They seemed to swivel in the direction of the pretty antelope. “I don’t think he likes porridge…” said Digby with dread. The Magic Paintbrush Writing Frames - go one step further by having children retell the story in their own words. With the same pictures, they'll write out the tale as they remember it. Alternatively, they can create their own versions, based on the original and the illustrations.

We can conclude the story with the moral lesson that greed is a harmful thing. As depicted in the magic paintbrush story, the rich man died because he was too greedy and wanted to become even richer. So now the boys were left with a triceratops, an antelope and a tiger in a cage to look after. It seemed they should be careful before they painted anything else. Already they had to spend ten minutes painting some nice green grass for the antelope, and then painting some nice bowls of water for all of them to wash their dinners down. Then they had to paint a night time sky, because they thought the animals must be getting tired by now. Then they had to paint pillows, quilts, a bed, and by that time the whole picture on both pieces of paper was getting far too crowded. There was once a young boy named Ma Liang. He lived in a small village in China. He was poor and friendly, and he loved to draw. His love for painting was too much so he drew paintings all over the place.

He drew a cow and it came to life when he observed how difficult it was for people to till the field. The cow might readily be used to plow the ground.

This is not a usual Julia Donaldson book, as there is not the normal 'fun' approach to the manner in which the story unfurls. There is, however, her familiar strong but simple rhyming style running throughout. The illustrations are lovely and delicate, not the normal bold approach, complementing well the ancient oriental storyline. Whilst being read the story Children will relish looking at the pictures in wonderment, devouring the very different cultural aspects associated with ancient Chinese society. He painted the tiger and a very nice tiger it was too. It was standing up on two legs and had its paws out, like it was about to swat somebody. My real breakthrough was THE GRUFFALO, again illustrated by Axel. We work separately - he’s in London and I’m in Glasgow - but he sends me letters with lovely funny pictures on the envelopes. He took his finger out, and this time more carefully, touched the picture again. Sure enough, the paper did not feel like paper when he touched it. Instead, it was rough and scaly, like a snake, or perhaps like a scab.From that day on, he used the paintbrush whenever people needed help. When he saw that people had no water to use in the fields, he drew a river and the river came to life. People could bring water from the river to the field and save a lot of time and energy. I tend to rate my read books more by the story rather than the illustrations but since these are picture books I'll do give my opinion on them, too. Each illustrator has their own style and niche and I appreciate each one I see but of course there will be ones I like more than others. This lovely KS1 differentiated reading comprehension activity tells the Chinese folk story of 'The Magic Paintbrush'. The story sends out the message to be kind and to put generosity over greed. Once upon a time, there was a young man called Ma Liang. He was poor and kind and liked drawing so much that he drew pictures everywhere. One night, he dreamed that an old man gave him a magic paintbrush and asked him to use it to help poor people. When he woke up, he found the magic paintbrush on his desk.