write an article about a book that was written twenty-five years ago? Because it, and other books by the same author, were so successful. The article is behind a paywall, but it starts with,
When Julia Donaldson set out to write a children’s book featuring a mouse—who would take a stroll through “the deep dark wood”, fending off a series of predators with wit and cunning—she intended him to meet a tiger for tea. Ms Donaldson, a British author who wrote songs for children’s television, had been inspired by a Chinese fable about a girl who escapes death by convincing a tiger that she is the queen of the forest. But there was a problem: Ms Donaldson wanted the book to be in rhyming couplets, and not a lot rhymes with tiger. She decided it would be more pragmatic for the beast’s name to end with the sound “oh”. And so, with the help of Axel Scheffler, a German illustrator, one of the most lucrative monsters in children’s publishing was born.
“The Gruffalo”, which was published 25 years ago in March, has achieved such great success that tired parents everywhere have considered jacking in their boring jobs to write children’s books. To date it has sold 11.6m copies worldwide, according to the publisher. Last year Ms Donaldson’s whole oeuvre—now 200 books and counting—brought in £15.6m ($19.6m) in sales, with “The Gruffalo” leading the pack.
—How “The Gruffalo” went global
The Gruffalo has been translated into 107 languages and dialects.
Here are two more of Donaldson’s books:
Hurray for children’s stories!
March 28, 2024
that was lovely
truly cheered up my day
Happy Easter everyone, Good Friday here in NZ in 4 hours
Happy Easter to you, too! I’m glad those stories cheered you up. They make me happy too.
What delightful books.
Yes. 🙂
I can see how children would like these, it would be easy for them to memorize the story because of the rhymes.
I love the rhymes and the repeats. 🙂
I love this!
🙂
They are very good. And the Gruffalo one takes up right where the other one left off. What an amazing story of it’s creation.
Bless The Economist for telling us about them. I had no idea.
I agree with Ann … these are delightful!
🙂
I had never really heard of them but I can see why they were big hits!
I had never heard of them either. 🙂