Anish Kapoor among artists featuring in youth vote billboard campaign
Exclusive: Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler also contributes drawing encouraging young people to vote
January 2024
Tom Parker Bowles picked for mini library project championed by his mum
Tom Parker Bowles among 21 writers providing snapshot of contemporary literature in initiative supported by the queen
August 2023
The Gruffalo is likely to be a child’s first book, UK survey finds
Collecting data from 2,000 parents, retailer The Works found the bestseller was the most popular choice when parents pick what to read to their children for the first time
July 2023
Picture books for children – reviews
Play time
The Smeds and the Smoos review – songs and screams in Donaldson and Scheffler’s jolly voyage
December 2022
Top 10s
Top 10 books about freedom
‘I love writing for children’: Emma Thompson and Axel Scheffler on their amazing shaggy dog story
September 2022
‘At first she didn’t like my drawings’: Axel Scheffler and Julia Donaldson on three decades of collaboration
In a rare joint interview, the creators of The Gruffalo talk about baddies, Brexit – and the bumpy beginning to their partnership
December 2021
Julia Donaldson reveals tussle over opening couplet of Superworm
Author backed down over publisher’s concerns about potentially embarrassing misinterpretations
June 2021
The Smartest Giant in Town review – a very tall tale
Nutty animals and witty puppetry liven up this at times bleak version of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s picture book
May 2021
Behind the scenes of The Smartest Giant in Town – in pictures
A musical production of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s children’s book The Smartest Giant in Town is opening at the Little Angel theatre in Islington, north London. Guardian photographer David Levene went behind the scenes
January 2021
Lockdown culture
Broom to Zoom: Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler launch new Covid tales
The author and illustrator of Room on the Broom and The Gruffalo have released more images showing their classic characters contending with the pandemic
May 2020
Lockdown reading
From Harry Potter at Home to the National Shelf Service: bookish fun for the lockdown
British Library asks nation's children to write miniature books in lockdown
April 2020
'Gruffalo stayed in the cave': Axel Scheffler and Julia Donaldson's coronavirus cartoons
Stay in your cave: the Gruffalo lends a claw to the coronavirus effort
February 2020
British Book awards balance art and selling power to decide best writer in 30 years
Novelists rub shoulders with presidents, chefs, comedians and thriller megastars on longlist to define the title with the biggest impact on the book world
December 2017
A life in ...
Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler: ‘The Gruffalo’s not a curse … it can be a burden’
The author and illustrator on their long partnership and what Brexit would have meant for The Gruffalo
November 2017
‘We can't be quiet’: Gruffalo co-creator and fellow illustrators respond to Brexit
Axel Scheffler among children’s illustrators across Europe to channel ‘anger and sadness and disbelief’ into gallery of images
September 2017
Axel Scheffler opens his sketchbooks – in pictures
The Gruffalo’s co-creator shows us how he draws and paints the illustrations for Julia Donaldson’s much-loved children’s books