The New Children’s Laureate: Julia Donaldson

‘One day in as the new Children’s Laureate, and Julia Donaldson could be forgiven for looking somewhat pole-axed,’ said Nicholas Tucker who interviewed her just after the announcement of her appointment as the 7th Children’s Laureate. Her predecessors in this illustrious post, Quentin Blake, Anne Fine, Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Rosen and Anthony Browne all championed different causes. What is to be the focus of Julia Donaldson’s Laureateship?

The volume of publicity Julia Donaldson’s appointment had engendered was already vast well before we met on the morning of June 8 in Macmillan’s swanky new building behind King’s Cross. But the notices have all been positive, as befits an author of 160 books and twenty plays, many of them written in infectiously memorable rhyming texts.

Expert at getting through to pre-school children in live events, often accompanied by her husband Malcolm, this is a very popular as well as successful author. So did she think the Children’s Laureate should have a special uniform, possibly based on the sort of thing the Pied Piper may once have worn?

‘No, I don’t think so! I don’t mind dressing up as part of an event, but not as the person I am going to have to be for the next two years.’

So what are her plans?

‘Well, as a song-writer, which is how I started, I am most used to working with young audiences, acting out songs and stories myself and getting lots of audience participation. So I would like to do more of this, encouraging children, mums, dads, even criminals when I have worked in prisons to improvise from texts themselves and then join in the choruses. And I would also love to get more children into the writing process, and would support any project that encourages them to do this. And this approach wouldn’t just be with my books – I would like to use other writers’ work as well. But it’s not all about improvising and acting out. I have also worked for years with infants using easy to read play scripts, making sure that the main parts always get swapped around so everyone ultimately has a go. And some of the children involved, who weren’t particularly good readers, had by the end learned all the words, which brought on their reading confidence no end. I would love it now if I could work with an educational publisher and produce more of these little scripts as a genuine aid to reading ability.’

Are there plans then for trying to widen out her involvement from single occasions to mass events involving children all over the country, possibly through radio or television?

‘I have already been in talks about creating a new show for children on television. What I would like would be a series where I or someone else could tell a story and then work with children who had already heard it before and who could then act it out. This would show schools how to do it. And it would be nice to round up all this work with something like a national Act out a story day. Radio would be lovely too, if we could get any broadcasting organization interested. When I was a child I used to love the BBC programme Listen with Mother. People moan today about children no longer knowing nursery rhymes, but the reason we all once knew them was this wonderful programme. I used to sing “Ding Dong Bell” so often that my mother would beg me to stop. But I would simply reply “More ding dong!”’

What about nursery rhymes?

Nursery rhymes are such a rich source for children. How about a campaign to bring them to the fore once again, possibly persuading a chain of shops to mount window displays featuring a nursery rhyme of the month?

‘Yes, but children still wouldn’t be getting the tunes as well, which are so important in the memory process. Perhaps we could persuade CBeebies to have something like a nursery rhyme of the week. Possibly in the morning before children go to school. But something certainly should be done. Malcolm, my husband, often gets children singing while they are queuing up to have their books signed at one of our events. And he finds that most of them only know two rhymes now, “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”.’

Is Malcolm going to play a big part in what you will be doing?

‘He’s been grooming me for the post ever since it was first announced! I always used to say I couldn’t possibly think of doing it. But I feel differently now. And it has come at a good time, since Malcolm is going to retire as a pediatrician half way through my term. After that I am sure we will do lots together; we always have.’

And will he be wearing the Gruffalo costume?

‘I think we would both like to concentrate on other things now. I do get rather tired of being called Mrs Gruffalo or whatever.’

Any plans for threatened public libraries?

‘I don’t think many people realise that even under the boom years libraries were still contracting. I have done so many library events and have seen evidence of this lack of investment. So when people ask whether the money needed to keep them all open should come from education or health spending, my answer is simply ‘Yes!’ Because if you sell a library, you’re never going to get that building back. And some of those building are so lovely; they have been specifically designed as libraries, and wouldn’t be suitable for any other use. There is nothing wrong with keeping open buildings that other people sometimes describe as currently old-fashioned – look at St Pancras Station, once about to be torn down and now once again a fantastic attraction. I personally think it was a mistake for libraries to have gone so far down the computer path. I was once writer in residence at a library where the children’s section had been given over to computer use. Working with children when other users wanted to get on with screen card games or whatever was no fun.’

It is now time for Julia to go to another event before catching a train back to Glasgow, her home for many years, making her the first ever Children’s Laureate to be based in Scotland. More about her future plans can be found on www.childrenslaureate.org.uk.There you can read about all her ideas for encouraging drama, music and story creation in schools. She also wants to help with producing more signed stories for deaf children, knowing some of their problems from her own experience of minor hearing loss. Aged 62, and last year the most borrowed author in children’s libraries, Julia – for many years right at the top of her particular game – is an excellent choice for the job. With her genius for getting through to children and then getting the same children to get through to her in return, her tenure promises to be excitingly creative as well as very productive.

Nicholas Tucker is honorary senior lecturer in Cultural and Community Studies at Sussex University.

The Children’s Laureates

1999-2001

Quentin Blake

This inaugural laureateship focused on the importance of illustration. Quentin Blake’s articles for BfK included Children’s Book Illustration: a Separate Story (No. 121, March 2000) on the links between illustrating for adult and child audiences and A Sailboat in the Sky (No 127, Match 2001) on involving 1,800 French schoolchildren in producing a book about humanitarian issues.

2001-2003

Anne Fine

As well as working on picture books for the blind, Anne Fine’s focus was on the importance of libraries, both school and public, but also on the value of children having their own ‘home library’ with books that they own. Anne explained her thinking in Everyone’s Home Library in BfK No 133, March 2002.

2003-2005

Michael Morpurgo

Michael Morpurgo, who, with Ted Hughes, had come up with the idea of a Children’s Laureateship and helped to bring it about, emphasized the importance of storytelling during his tenure.

2005-2007

Jacqueline Wilson

The importance of reading aloud to children – and not just small children – was the focus of Jacqueline Wilson’s laureateship which also brought about the publication of Great Books to Read Aloud compiled by Julia Eccleshare. Jacqueline Wilson reflected on her laureateship in On Being the Children’s Laureate (BfK No 162, 2007).

2007-2009

Michael Rosen

Among the highlights of Michael Rosen’s laureateship were the launch of ‘The Roald Dahl Funny Prize’ and ‘The Poetry Friendly Classroom’ webpage devised to enable teachers to feel more confident in introducing children to poetry. Michael Rosen chronicled his energetic laureateship in his ‘Laureate Log’ in the pages of BfK from No. 167, July 2007 to No. 177, November 2009.

2009-2011

Anthony Browne

Anthony Browne campaigned for more recognition for children’s illustration and illustrators. His articles on aspects of picture book illustration appeared in Bfk No 180, 2010 (on sources of inspiration) and No 182, May 2010 (on Chris Van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harris Burdick).