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Synopsis

Playtime! by Julia Donaldson
Written by the author of "The Gruffalo", this title contains eleven short plays ranging from adaptations of traditional tales such as the "Legend of Persephone" and "Three Billy Goats Gruff" to original short plays. It is intended for primary-aged children (Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2). It offers guidance on target age, running time and cast.

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About The Author

Waterstone's Children's Laureate 2012 - 2014.

Click here to read an article from The Telegraph where Julia outlines outlines her manifesto as the new Children’s Laureate.

You can also follow the Children's Laureate's blog - click here.

Julia Donaldson is the author of over 150 books for children and her 1999 book The Gruffalo, illustrated by Axel Scheffler, is now a children's classic and publishing phenomenon, selling 3 million copies worldwide. She is also the Patron of Artlink Central, a charity which puts artists, musicians and storytellers into schools, hospitals, prisons and community spaces to work with children and adults and help them develop their talent and creativity.

Julia Donaldson was selected as the Children’s Laureate 2011-2013, and was awarded an MBE just days after the announcement. Julia lives in Glasgow with her husband, Malcolm, and their family. Below are the answers to some questions we asked Julia.

Q. When did you decide to be a writer?
A. For my fifth birthday, my father gave me a very fat book called The Book of a Thousand Poems. I loved it. I read the poems, recited them, learnt them, and then started making up some of my own. Although I wanted to be a poet all those years ago, I later decided I would rather go on the stage. That didn’t quite work out, so I did other jobs – teaching and publishing. But somehow I’ve ended up doing what I wanted to do when I was five years old. I have a theory that this happens to quite a lot of people.

Q. When did you start to write books?
A. In 1993, when one of my songs, ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’ was made into a book. Before that I wrote songs for children’s television.

Q. Your book Tiddler  is coming out in paperback. What gave you the idea for that story?
A. I’ve been snorkelling a few times and love the colourful underwater world of fish and coral. Also, I often used to be late for school and was quite good at making up excuses, like Tiddler.

Q. How many books have you written?
A: I’ve just counted, and I make it 152! That sounds a lot but 60 of those are very short phonic reading books for schools, called Songbirds.
 
Q. Have you written any longer books?
A. Yes. I’ve written three chapter books about naughty Princess Mirror-Belle, who comes out of a mirror, and a novel called The Giants and the Joneses, about three children who are captured by a girl giant.

Q. What are your hobbies?
A. Walking, cycling, playing the piano, singing. I’m also interested in wild flowers and fungi.

Q. Do you have any pets?
A. I have three cats. Campsie is female, and Gizmo and Goblin are her big tough sons. Their favourite hobby is going in the garden, getting their paws muddy and then walking all over whatever I have just been writing. (And they gave me the idea for yet another book, Tabby McTat.)

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