Gruffalo author ‘honoured’ to be children’s book champion
Best-selling author Julia Donaldson has spoken of the
"great honour" of being selected as the Children's Laureate for the
next two years.
The creator of a string of hit children's books including The
Gruffalo and The Snail and The Whale, also said that she might
"create a stink" by campaigning against the changes taking place in
libraries.
She said: "It's a great honour that I've been chosen to be the
Children's Laureate. I see it as an exciting adventure.
"I'm determined to support libraries. I shall of course lend my
voice to the campaign to halt the cuts and closures which as I see
as so damaging to our children and their future."
The Scottish-based author said the amount of computers in
libraries troubled her.
"I thought it was a shame when so many computers were brought
into libraries. I thought that was a mistake.
"I might get into hot water by saying this, but I would love to
see more going into stocking children's titles, even at the expense
of adult sections. But part of my job is to create a stink," she
said.
Ms Donaldson, who lives in Bearsden, was named yesterday as the
new Waterstone's Children's Laureate - the first Scottish-based
writer to hold the title.
The laureate - a term which means award and comes from being
given a laurel wreath to wear as a crown - is chosen every two
years.
A panel of judges considers nominations from a range of
organisations representing librarians, critics, writers and
booksellers. They also consider authors and illustrators nominated
directly by children.
Ms Donaldson takes over as Children's Laureate from Anthony
Browne who has held the post since 2009. Previous Children's
Laureates include Michael Rosen, Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline
Wilson and Quentin Blake.
Click here to try our Julia Donaldson
quiz.
Lesson ideas and
suggestions
Read and discuss lesson ideas on our Facebook page
Join our mailing list (Glow login
required)
Gruffalo author ‘honoured’ to be children’s book champion
Today's What's more is an extract of from and Q and
A section on Julia Donaldson's website in which she addresses
questions asked by children.
Q: When did you decide to be a
writer?
A: For my fifth birthday, my father gave me a
very fat book called The Book of a Thousand Poems. I loved it. I
read the poems, recited them, learnt them, and then started making
up some of my own. Although I wanted to be a poet all those years
ago, I later decided I would rather go on the stage. That didn't
quite work out. Somehow I've ended up doing what I wanted to do
when I was five years old.
Q: Where do you get your ideas?
A Anywhere and everywhere: things that happen
to my children; memories of my own childhood; things people say;
places I go to; old folk tales and fairy stories. The hard part is
not getting the idea, it is turning it into a story with a
beginning, a middle and an end.
Q: How long does it take to write a
book?
A: It can take months or years for the idea to
grow in my head and for me to plan the book. This is a very
important part. Then, when I am ready it could take anything
between a week and six months to write it. For The Gruffalo
the ideas and planning stage lasted a year (obviously I was doing
other things too!) and the actual writing took about two weeks.
Q: Where did the inspiration for the
Gruffalo come from?
A: The book was going to be about a tiger but I
couldn't get anything to rhyme with "tiger". Then I thought up the
lines: "Silly old Fox, doesn't he know/There's no such thing as a
…" and somehow the word "gruffalo" came to mind to fill the gap.
The gruffalo looks the way he does because various things that just
happened to rhyme (like toes and nose, and black and back)
Q: Do you and Axel Scheffler work closely
together on your picture books?
A: No. I don't breathe down his neck and he
doesn't breathe down mine! (In any case, I live in Glasgow and he's
in London!) I write a story and send it to the publisher. Then the
publisher sends it to Axel to illustrate. I do get to make comments
on his rough sketches but try not to interfere too much - and
anyway, I wouldn't want to as they're always so funny and
brilliant.
Q: Which one of your books is your
favourite?
A: It keeps changing. At the moment I have two:
The Snail and the Whale for younger children and "The Giants and
the Joneses" for older ones.
Q: What is your favourite book (not by
you)?
A: One of my favourites is Watership Down by
Richard Adams, an exciting story about rabbits.
Q: Do you have any pets?
A: I have two cats. Campsie is female, and
Goblin is her big tough son. Their favourite hobby is going in the
garden, getting their paws muddy and then walking all over whatever
I have just been writing.
Click here to try our Julia Donaldson
quiz.
Lesson ideas and
suggestions
Read and discuss lesson ideas on our Facebook page
Join our mailing list (Glow login
required)