Children’s Book Week. Interview: Julia Donaldson (Part 1)

In the first part of our two-part Julia Donaldson extravaganza for Vulpes Children’s Week, author of well-loved picture books “The Gruffalo”, “The Snail and The Whale”, “A Squash and a Squeeze” and many other childhood favourites, kindly answered our questions in this online interview. Please join us on Wednesday for Part II where Eve and I go round to Julia’s house for coffee to chat about her stage shows, writing songs for children and the importance of the shared experience of reading aloud.

Tell us about how you first came to be published – was it straightforward or a bit more complicated?

My first children’s book, A Squash and a Squeeze, started its life as a television song. ( It was heard on a BBC tape by a mum who – a decade later – was working for a publisher and, still remembering it, thought the words would make a good picture book.)

After that, it wasn’t all plain sailing. I’d already written a number of very short plays to help children (in my son’s primary school) with their reading, and publication of A Squash and a Squeeze gave me courage to get them out of a drawer and send them off. That led to my writing quite a lot of plays, stories and re-tellings of trad tales for educational publishers such as Ginn and Heinemann. But I got quite a lot of rejection letters from publishers in the trade (i.e. publishers of books which go into bookshops as opposed to schools). I think this was largely because an editor had advised me not to write in verse, and not to re-tell a traditional tale. Then, eventually, another editor said, “Julia, why do you keep writing these prose things? How about something in rhyme, maybe re-telling a traditional tale?” So I wrote The Gruffalo, (which is loosely based on an Eastern trad tale about a Tiger), and never really looked back.

What do you think it is about your books and particularly The Gruffalo that has had such a huge impact on children?

Actually, it’s not “particularly The Gruffalo”, as when I meet children and parents they always seem to have a different favourite, maybe Room on the Broom or Tyrannosaurus Drip or The Snail and the Whale. It’s just that journalists always focus on The Gruffalo! Maybe I’m not the best person to ask about the impact, but I suppose the thing parents most often say to me is, “My child can recite Monkey Puzzle (or A Squash and a Squeeze or The Gruffalo) off by heart. So I suppose the rhythm, rhymes and language must have something to do with it. And then I am blessed with a number of wonderful illustrators, notably Axel Scheffler, whose pictures are so atmospheric and bright and witty.

Rhyming comes in and out of fashion in children’s books. Why does it appeal to children and why do you think we don’t have rhyme for adults!?

Not v easy to answer! Actually I suppose we do have rhyme for adults, since a lot of pop songs still rhyme (or nearly!), and so do songs in musicals. I suppose it is out of fashion for adult serious poetry, though Stephen Fry’s book “The Ode Less Travelled” argues a good case for a revival.

Your work is usually a collaboration (with an illustrator), for example Axel Scheffler. How does that work? And how do you feel just before you see the illustrations for the first time?

Most authors and illustrators work separately, as is the case with me and Axel Scheffler. Often he doesn’t even know I’m writing something. I send the finished manuscript to the publisher, who then sends it to Axel (or a different illustrator) to see if they’re keen to do it. I used to get nervous before seeing the rough pictures, but that’s no longer the case with Axel, as I’ve come to know his style so well, and he always adds so many humorous details which weren’t in the text but really add to the pleasure of the book. Occasionally I will request some minor change – e.g. in The Smartest Giant in Town I’d said that the giant had “socks with diamonds up the sides” and Axel sketched 18^th-century knee breeches with diamond-studded hose, whereas I’d meant Marks-and-Spencer type of socks with a diamond pattern.

There is very little room for manoeuvre in picture book writing – set amount of pages, text on a page, etc. What is the most important aspect to get into this narrow brief? And how do you decide what’s needed?

The editors and designers are brilliant at working on the pagination and design, and it’s amazing in fact how even quite a long story can be told in only 12 or 14 double-page spreads. Picture books are incredibly versatile, which is one of the things I love about them. But I think that the writer does need to be aware (subconsciously anyway) of the format, and to some extent to think in terms of those double-page spreads, and the mini cliff-hangers which you can sometimes have before a page turn.

I read that you say plot is a lot more important to you than character – I found this interesting, particularly as children often get so attached to particular characters (for example my niece loves anything to do with Po from Teletubbies). Can you tell us more about your thoughts on plot and character?

When I said this I only meant in picture books, not in novels (I have written quite a few longer books, e.g. the Princess Mirror-Belle books) in which character is equally important. Yes, children latch on to characters, but that doesn’t mean to say that their author has made them wonderfully subtle or complex. ( I doubt if Po from Teletubbies is a fully-rounded character!) In a picture book, you are telling a story in very few pages, and a weak plot will always disappoint, whereas in a novel, if style is good and characters interesting, one can sometimes forgive a rambling or patchy plot. (Though actually I think that the enduring books such as Jane Austen’s ones do have terrifically well thought-out plots.) In a picture book, a character can often be summed up in one or two words. For instance, in The Gruffalo, the mouse is little and clever, and the Gruffalo is big and stupid. The illustrator can of course add to their characters, just as an actor can bring to life a character who may be a bit nothingy in a film script.

Lots of celebrities seem to be turning their hands to writing children’s books – what do you think of this? Advantages, disadvantages?

Fine if they can actually write well, but I can’t actually think of any such books which have remained popular.

What you do think is the most important elements for a good picture book and what advice would you give to aspiring writers and illustrators?

Picture books can be almost anything, so I’d advise would-be writers and illustrators to look at lots and lots of currently available ones (there are great troughs of them in libraries), and also to consult The Children’s Writers’ and Artists’ Year Book.

How do you feel watching adaptations of your work?

I think that Tall Stories have done a very good job of The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child, though I have to confess that my main excitement consists of the thought that as a result more people will buy the books. I had a lovely time recently in a school in Aberdeen where the children had translated The Gruffalo into Doric (a local dialect) and performed it for me.

The Gruffalo is such a well loved book by millions of children (and adults). Are you affected by this success? I mean, does it make you worry about the next idea measuring up?

Not really, because – as I said in answer 1 – a lot of the other books are actually just as popular. I am aware that I have a certain reputation and don’t want to disappoint people, so I always try my best and am not easily satisfied. (But I think I’d be like that anyway.)

What are you working on now and what other projects are in the pipe-line?

In the pipeline are:

• Stick Man (a picture book illustrated by Axel Scheffler, coming out in September)
• What the Ladybird Heard (a picture book illustrated by Lydia Monks, coming out next Spring)
• The Troll (a picture book illustrated by David Roberts, coming out next summer)
• Running on the Cracks (a novel for teenagers, coming out next spring)
• 12 new “Songbirds” (phonic reading books, part of the Oxford Reading Tree; I’ve already written 48 of these “Songbirds”.)

I’ve also just written 2 more picture-book texts (for 2010) and am drawing breath!

Lastly – we always ask this one – could you tell us your five favourite books and why?

If you don’t mind, I’ll stick to children’s books

Favourite Rhyming Picture Books:

Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg A delicious, deceptively simple “find the fairytale character” book, where you discover new strands and hidden details at each reading

Old Hat New Hat by Stan and Jan Berenstain A comical search for the perfect hat. The adjectives become more and more ludicrous as hat after hat is discarded: “too beady, too bumpy, to leafy, too lumpy . . . too holey, too patchy, too feathery, too scratchy.” Good to read aloud or for beginner readers.

Mr Magnolia by Quentin Blake Another search, this time for a missing boot. Each page ends with a rhyme for “boot” which gives scope for wonderful whimsical variety: my children were partial to Mr Magnolia’s dinosaur (”What a magnificent brute”) but I preferred his “two lovely sisters who play on the flute”.

Hairy McClary from Donaldson’s Dairy by Lynley Dodd A rumbustious procession of characterful dogs. My favourite one is “Schnitzel von Krumm with a very low tum”. Children love anticipating the moment where the cumulative rhythm is dramatically broken by the appearance of Scarface Claw, the toughest tom in town.

Once Upon a Tide by Tony Mitton and Selina Young

A more recent book, in which two enterprising and self-sufficient children build a boat (”Bess got the hammer. I got the saw”) and depart on a sea voyage (”Bess worked the rudder and I worked the sail”) I love the mixture of poetry and practicality.

We would like to thank Julia Donaldson for answering our questions.

Please check out Part II of our interview with Julia on Wednesday.

Further links

Julia Donaldson’s website

Interview with Write Away about one of her latest books Tyrannosaurus Drip

Artlink Central, the charity of which Julia Donaldson is patron, that enables a wide range of marginalised and special needs groups to work with experienced professional artists on arts projects in the Stirling, Falkirkand, Clackmannanshire areas of Central Scotland.