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Julia Donaldson
Julia Donaldson's writing career started when she was a peniless student in Paris, and went busking. Busking led to song-writing, and eventually - when one of her songs, 'A Squash and a Squeeze', was made into a picture book - to songs without tunes. Since then her rhyming stories, among them 'The Gruffalo' and 'What the Ladybird Heard', have won many prizes and regularly top the UK children's bestseller charts, while her series of phonic reading books, 'Songbirds' is widely used in schools.
For older children, Julia has written the popular 'Princess Mirror-Belle' stories and the novel 'The Giants and the Joneses'. Her novel for teenagers, 'Running on the Cracks', won the Nasen Inclusive Children's Book Award. Julia also enjoys writing plays, such as 'Bombs and Blackberries' about World War Two.
On becoming Children’s Laureate Julia said:
“It’s a great honour that I’ve been chosen to be the Children’s Laureate. My term will run from June 2011 until June 2013. I think it’s going to be a very busy two years and I see it as an exciting adventure, often to unknown places. So I can’t yet say exactly what I hope to achieve. However, with my background in plays and song-writing, I would like to explore projects which link books with drama and music.”
You can find out more on Julia's website and on the Children's Laureate website.
