Julia Donaldson Children's Laureate

Julia Donaldson a fantastic children's author, she has written over 165 books (64 of them can be bought in shops, and the other 101 are for schools.) Her most famous book is probably The Gruffalo but she has written a couple of books for older children which I will read and review then at a later date. I loved her books when I was younger because they are funny exciting and my mum and dad enjoyed reading them too. If fact they probably know them off by heart and my five year old brother now loves them. To find out more about Julia Donaldson here is a link to a website about her: http://www.juliadonaldson.co.uk/index.php

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to ask her a couple questions. She is currently touring the country and was in Shropshire on Wednesday and was interviewed by Jim Hawkins on BBC Radio Shropshire. Jim told Julia about my blog and asked her if I could interview her. She agreed to answer a couple of questions by email which was brilliant so a big THANK YOU. Here they are:

 

MS What gives you your inspiration for your books?

 

JD It is different for every book - but to choose one - sometimes an idea comes from my own children. My middle son loved collecting things and it gave me the idea for my novel The Giants and the Joneses where children are collected by a giant.  

 

MS What do you like to read? What do you think can be done to make reading cool for boys?

 

JD As I am the Children's Laureate, I have been reading lots of different children's books. Two books that I have especially enjoyed recently and ones that I think you and your blog readers would like are:Skyhawk by Gill Lewis    http://www.gilllewis.com/
Mr Stink by David Walliams  http://david-walliams.co.uk/

 

We have combined questions 2 and 3 and I hope Matthew won't mind this. I am pleased that we have been able to add this to his blog in between events!

I will read Julia's recommended books and review them when done.
 
What is a Children's Laureate?
 
The role of a children's Laureate is awarded once every two years to an eminent writer or illustrator of children's books to celebrate outstanding achievement in their field.
 
I thought I would add this in case you are wondering what a Children's Laureate is because I didn't know.

 

This is Julia Donaldson