The bestselling author of The Gruffalo on why she’s written a sequel for another of her favourite characters, Zog
As a parent, it?s a rare thing to find a kids? book you love to read as much as your children, and that?s exactly what you get time after time with the stories of Julia Donaldson. She manages to capture the imagination of every generation with her lighthearted tales of storytelling fish, hitchhiking snails and super worms. So it comes as no surprise that Donaldson began her career writing musical ditties for children on the BBC, where her briefs would be as random as ?we want a song about throwing crumpled-up wrapping paper into the bin?. It was one of these songs, A Squash and a Squeeze, that was turned into a book in 1993, and her literary career was born. With her inimitable style, teamed with the unforgettable illustrations of Axel Scheffler, she is best known for writing The Gruffalo, but other favourites include The Snail and the Whale, Room on the Broom and Zog, for which she has just written the sequel, Zog and the Flying Doctors. Here, she tells us about her career, and how her new book came about. Zog is back! The only other sequel you?ve written is The Gruffalo?s Child. Why was Zog worthy of a follow-up"
At the end of the first book, the dragon hero teams up with the princess and the knight to become flying doctors. It?s one of those endings which could also be a beginning. I?ve often been asked, and have wondered myself, what adventures ...