Julia Donaldson is not only author of our favorite children’s books, but also our favorite illustrator (to date, Axel Scheffler has illustrated 29 of her books, and they are all among our favorites), wonderful Ukrainian translations, and most importantly, really smart, instructive, witty and exciting stories with unexpected twists, – that’s what Julia Donaldson is all about. A thousand and one topics to discuss and a guarantee of fun time spent with children.
Julia Donaldson’s best books for the little ones
Short rhyming stories about animals for the smallest; books with windows. To date, only two of them have been translated into Ukrainian – “Postman Bear” and “Fox’s socks”.
In “Fox’s socks”, for example, the fox finds various elements of the wardrobe and, in search of socks, accidentally gets fully dressed.
Julia Donaldson’s best stories
The Snale and The Whale
“The Snail and the Whale” is the only book whose masterful Ukrainian translation I like more than the original (translated by Oksana Luschevska).
This is a story about a brave little snail who dreams of traveling the world, but encounters rejection from his family. Despite this, the snail asks the whale to take him on a journey, and they go on an exciting trip through the seas and oceans, seeing exotic places, icebergs, coral reefs and volcanoes. However, one day the whale gets into trouble, and the little snail finds the courage to save his impossibly large friend, despite his own modest size. Returning home, the hero impresses his relatives with vivid stories and takes them with him on a new journey.
Gruffalo
Both stories tell about incredible adventures in the forest, where a little mouse uses tricks to escape danger.
- The Gruffalo: In the first book, the main character is a mouse who goes on a dangerous journey through the forest. On his way, he meets various predators trying to eat him: a fox, an owl and a snake. To save himself, the mouse invents a story about a terrifying creature called the Gruffalo, who supposedly lives in this forest. But unexpectedly for the mouse, the Gruffalo turns out to be real! However, the clever mouse is still not confused, he tricks the Gruffalo and remains safe.
- The Gruffalo’s Child: In the continuation of the story the Gruffalo’s son is scared by stories about the dangerous mouse, familiar to us from the first story. Despite his father’s prohibition, the Gruffalo goes in search of a little mouse at night. After various adventures, it finally finds a mouse, which once again proves its cunning and resourcefulness, scaring the Gruffalo with its own “scary” image.
Zog
Two stories about a young dragon named Zog who attends the Dragon School. Zog tries very hard to do all his homework, but because of his clumsiness, he often gets into various troubles. Princess Pearl, who doesn’t want to be a princess and wear crowns and dresses, comes to the rescue – she wants to be a doctor. As part of her homework, Pearl convinces Zog to kidnap her, and as a result, they create an “ambulance” service.
The evil king wants to force Pearl to be a conventional princess and imprisons her in a castle until she begins to suffer from a terrible disease that no one but the princess can cure. The king lets the princess go, admitting that princesses can be doctors, but not even apologizing, hymn boy. For me, this story is primarily about the princess, domestic labor, violence and sexism. Wonderful.
Stick Man
A Christmas story about Stick Man, a little tree-twig man who lives with his wife and children. One day he accidentally finds himself far from home and begins to get into various situations, because the people and animals who meet him see him as an ordinary multifunctional stick. It is used as a dog toy, a paddle, a flag, and even part of a nest. But Stick Man is still looking for ways to return home to his family.
Finally, on Christmas night, Stick Man finds an unexpected ally – Santa Claus, who helps him return to his wife and children.
The Smartest Giant In Town
This book is not yet available in Ukrainian translation, which is a pity. It’s about a guy who wanted to look like the smartest guy in town. The giant bought himself new stylish clothes and went for a walk around the city, but on the way he began to stop to help everyone who needed it, giving away parts of his new wardrobe for various needs.
In the end, the guy found himlself almost naked and cold, – and here we can talk about the balance of one’s own needs and helping others. He returns to the shop to buy new clothes, but it’s already closed. Suddenly, the upset giant sees his old comfortable gown, and happily returns to being himself, – and here we can talk about conformism and meeting one’s own and other people’s expectations. And then all the animals he helped come to him with gratitude and words that he is the kindest giant in town. In short, there is a lot to talk about here.
Room On The Broom
One day during the flight, a strong wind blows off the witch’s hat, and a dog comes to the rescue, finding the hat and asking the witch to take him on a broomstick. The witch happily agrees, and so begins a series of adventures.
Later, the gang increases when a bird and a frog join the broom. They also help the witch when she loses various things. However, when the broom gets too tight, it breaks, and the heroes find themselves in a dangerous situation – a terrible dragon appears nearby, which wants to eat the witch. Her new friends come up with a plan together and save the witch from the dragon.
At the end of the story, the witch rewards the friends by creating a new, spacious high-tech broom with room for each of them.
The Baddies
The book tells the story of the three baddies – a troll, a ghost and a witch, who liked to harm others and even brag about it to each other. The insidious plans of the baddies methodically break down on the innocence of the girl whom they are trying to harm. The book ends with an unexpected twist: it turns out that there are monsters for monsters. Broken by the kindness of the girl, the bad guys decide to leave in search of a better fate, but they themselves fall into the clutches of the monster.
The Smeds and The Smoos
The Smeds and The Smoos is a non-classical “Montecchi and Capuleti” story. Two groups of aliens named The Smeds and The Smoos live on different planets, differ in color and customs, and are at war with each other.
Despite the enmity between their families, representatives of each group Janet and Bill become friends, and eventually fall in love. They decide to run away together to see other planets and not be separated by their families’ prejudices.
Realizing that they have lost their children, the families of Janet and Bill set out to find them, traveling the universe. During this journey, they discover the diversity of other worlds and begin to understand that differences are not a reason for enmity. When they find Janet and Bill with their purple baby, they accept their union. A wonderful book for conversations about otherness, acceptance, racism, tolerance.
How does Julia Donaldson do it?
Julia Donaldson is a living classic. She began her career writing songs for children’s television programs, but began to develop rapidly as a children’s author after one of these songs was published as a book. Cooperation with good illustrators, in particular Axel Scheffler, gave her books a special charm and recognition.
Julia sincerely loves children’s books for the smallest, and often draws plots from already known stories, or starts a completely new story with the question “what if?”, creating original characters with non-standard destinies. What if the stick was alive and had feelings? What if dragons went to school too? What if a slow snail wanted to travel the world?
Julia usually rhymes her stories and purposefully looks for words that would help the child develop speech. In her books there is always great humor, unusual twists and hot topics for discussion.
Julia Donaldson screen adaptations
The Gruffalo (2009)
The Gruffalo’s Child (2011)
Room on the Broom (2012)
Stick Man (2015)
The Highway Rat (2017)
Zog (2018)
The Snail and the Whale (2019)
Zog and the Flying Doctors (2020)
Read also:
14 esthetic and meaningful books for toddlers on Ukrainian market
