Gruffalo Granny, written by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

 

I'm a Granny, and I was given this for my birthday by a small grandchild. Could this one possibly be up to Gruffalo standard of brilliance, I wondered? I opened it with some trepidation, and started to read it to two year old Finlay. The rhyming text of course rollicks along beautifully, and the story, more complex than The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child, kept Finlay captivated throughout. 'Read it again', was his response!

In proper Gruffalo style, this is another story based on a tale of clever trickery,. This time its  Scheherazade's trick of keeping her would-be killer at bay by telling, but not completing, stories each night. Gruffalo and daughter have caught Mouse, intending to cook Mouse Stew for Granny. Can Mouse keep delaying them with stories long enough to survive? I think you can guess the answer to that! But there's a funny and satisfying twist when they serve-up Vegetable rather than Mouse Soup for Granny Gruffalo. And then there is a bonus twist that delightfully suggests that maybe Julia Donaldson herself is Gruffalo Granny!

A book to engage and excite young fans of all the Donaldson/Scheffler picture books, but this would be a tricky introductory book to those delights. It assumes recognition and knowledge of the Snail and the Whale, Monkey Puzzle, and Room on the Broom stories which get partially told here but not completed. So, a fun game of other story spotting for aficionados, but confusing for those not in the know.

Lucky me, I got to sit close to Julia Donaldson and hear her read this story to a large marquee full of excited fans, and I can report that the queue for buying and having the book signed was huge. It's a winner!  

WRITING FOLKLORE: Mermaids

 Mermaids can still make a splash in children's literature.

Being brought up in a seaside town meant I often stood on the beach, looking beyond the waves and imagining another world beneath the sea.

It wasn't hard to feel there must be a secret world of shell-studded caves and watery underwater castles. Mermaids fitted right into those daydreams. A beautiful creature with a shimmering tail may have been looking right back at me or peeping shyly from a colourful rock pool.

So seeing the attraction in children's books was an easy step. Mermaids are magical beings - part human, part otherworldly.

Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid was a favourite childhood book.

This mermaid longs so much for the human world that she gives up her voice to enter it. It's a darker story than the Disney version and involves sacrifice and a spiritual ending.

Jan Brett's The Mermaid is a familiar fairy tale with an underwater twist. 

It's a kind take on Goldilocks and the Three Bears, with the mermaid, Kiniro, exploring a house belonging to three octopuses. It's a playful, mischievous mermaid this time. A very different character.

For younger readers there's KG Campbell's The Mermaid and the Shoe.  

Minnow feels less worthy than her sisters, but when she finds an odd object - a shoe - her curiosity takes her off on an adventure.

I think for ages 9-12 mermaid stories work particularly well. They can have a little danger swimming beneath to add to the excitement. 

An elusive figure glimpsed beyond the waves can create a delicious shiver. Maybe not a good idea to follow that beautiful singing into the ocean, though.

www.sharontregenza.com

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Members' News October

 Clocks go back this month so we have an extra hour of reading time.

It's a quiet month on the news round-up. 

Congratulations this month to award-winning children's author Linda Newbery, whose new novel for adults, The Hide, will be released on October 22nd from Writers Review Publishing. 

Alys knows the dangers of obsession, having suffered the loss of a talented but disturbed friend in her student days. Her new post as head of art and move to rural Warwickshire offer a fresh start, but the reappearance of Fraser, from her college days, triggers fear that their shared guilt will blight the present. Meanwhile her daughter Rowan, 19, is increasingly involved in animal activism, often overwhelmed by the scale of suffering and by public indifference. How can either of them, mother or daughter, find fulfilment?

Publishers link

Amazon

Waterstones

https://www.lindanewbery.co.uk/

If you have any news you'd like publicised in November - new books, events, anything at all - send the details to Claire Fayers.

Out of Date by Paul May

It is incredible how fast children's books can become dated, especially if they're realistic fiction with a contemporary setting. 25 years ago I wrote a short football novel that referenced Michael Owen and held up Brazil as the team that exemplified a style of football that's now more associated with Spain. I wrote my first books when mobile phones were a novelty and there was still a phone tethered in the hallway in most houses. I always did my best to avoid writing dialogue in imitation of contemporary slang because I knew how that would seem out of date by the time the book was published, but I had no idea how fast the world would change. I see now why children's writers love fantasy and historical fiction.

An adult reader will pick up a John Le Carré novel and they'll recognize a past they've lived through. They won't be puzzled by characters having to visit a library or an archive to find information that today is available in a couple of clicks; they'll understand that, in a crisis, the hero can't just whip out a phone and call for help - they'll have to find a phone box, they'll need money . . . Jason Reynolds said in his film Dear Dreamer that he thought if his books were still being read forty years from now, 'I've failed.'

'Forty years from now we ain't figured out new books yet? Language is living, it's growing, it's changing, it's evolving . . . Books have to do the exact same thing in order for me to see eye to eye with the young people.'

Jason Reynolds isn't worried about his books dating because he wants young people to be reading new books all the time. Well, he probably doesn't want them reading the new stuff ALL the time, but it does mean he doesn't have to worry about being out of date. And there might come a time, but who knows when that will be, when 'out-of-date' turns into 'vintage' and then into 'classic'. And sometimes, even in realistic contemporary fiction, writers manage to nail something universal in their characters, or something so appealing in their stories, that their books never go out of print, no matter how dated they seem. I'm thinking of Noel Streatfeild or Arthur Ransome for example.

Maybe it'a a bit like the way you don't worry too much about a word you don't know if the plot's propelling you forward or you're desperately involved with the fortunes of a favourite character. Then you won't stop to worry about why they haven't made that phone call or sent that message.

Jason Reynolds has a point though. Everything these days is so instant and young people are tuned in to a constantly changing stream of information. Books are so slow. They're out of date before you've even finished writing them. It can take years to get from the first idea to the published book, and the potential readers of your book might not even be born when you have that first idea.

Thank You to Bookmarks - Joan Lennon

If you're like me, the whole thing of going cold into a bookshop and saying to the person behind the counter, 'Hi, I'm X and I've written a book called Y and I'd be happy, um, you know, to sign any copies you... have... um, er... I brought my own pen...' while they stare, blank-faced at best, deeply suspicious at worst,* and the hot flush rises to your hairline, isn't fun.

This is where having bookmarks come in. Instead of staring at you, for a few moments they're staring at the bookmarks and the picture of the cover is right there, saying 'Look at me - I'm legit!' A few moments during which they just might journey back from the foothills of disdain, start checking on the computer and possibly crack a smile. If they don't have a copy, you can still be Lady Munificent and give them some bookmarks. And if they DO have a copy that they produce for you to sign, well, you've got your own pen.

Revolution! 12 Seismic Shifts that Changed the World! by Joan Lennon, illustrated by Teo Georgiev, published by Templar Books

*This is more of a big book chain kind of response. The little independents warm up way quicker!

Joan Lennon website

Joan Lennon Instagram

THURSDAY 1ST OCTOBER - and it's NATIONAL POETRY DAY 2026 !

    Hooray! Thursday 1st October, is POETRY DAY 2006 . . . 

. . . a date the National Literacy Trust has chosen for exploring poetry in all its forms, a day for celebrating all rhymes and rhyming picture books in Storytimes, for re-reading and sharing familiar poems they have enjoyed before, discovering new poems and new voices, and even writing poetry and sharing their work and thoughts with others. 

This year's National Poetry Day is WONDER AND LOCAL COMMUNITY, a theme that invites students to explore the world around them them, to consider all the people, the places, the stories and the moments that make their environment unique.

The National Reading Agency offers a great online collection of poetry resources, all chosen to support the writing, reading and performing of poetry in schools, all designed to showcase poetry as a way for students to grow in confidence, creativity, empathy and self expression, and a language form that can easily be accessible to all students, whatever their age, and hopefully for more than a single day. 

In fact, at the end of the month, between 2-6 November, comes Young Poets Week, with the Young Laureate scheme offering some schools and pupils free poetry resources, online masterclasses and all sorts of ways of playing with words and poetry. For information on the new Young Laureate scheme, go to https://literacytrust.org.uk/writing-for-pleasure/poetry

Naturally, this is the time of the year when publishers highlight poetry books for schools. Among titles I've come across are 'Cosy Poems', Gaby Morgan's anthology for 11+ students, and Attie Lime's 'Poems on Toast' for KS2 children. Michael Rosen's website has videos of the poet performing his own poems, of course. My choice for the youngest children, though not strictly 'poetry', would probably be a rhyming picture book, such Rosen & Helen Oxenbury's charming 'Oh Dear, Look What I Got!', or a book I heard again recently: Kes Gray & Jim Field's very first 'Oi Frog!'

                                    Do you have any titles to suggest?

                       Happy National Poetry Day! 

Penny Dolan

Two writers in one house?! by Sheena Wilkinson

This week I played a part in a book launch, standing onstage, telling the audience -- and it was a packed house -- about this wonderful book they should all buy and would certainly enjoy. No, it wasn't my own book this time. This book, Punters on Tour: Around Ireland in 26 Racecourses is by my husband, Seamus Hynds. So now we are two writers in one house! 

the latest literary power couple? (photo: Raphael Mason)

Will we suddenly become like Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard? Leonard and Virginia Woolf? Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath? I don't think there's any danger of that -- Seamus has always said it would be 'one and done', whereas I can't imagine ever stopping writing. 

this is what it's all about 

Back in 2016, when we were just pals, Seamus, a massive fan of horse racing, told me of his plans to visit every racecourse in Ireland and write a book about it. Now when you’re a writer, as many readers of this blog are, people are always telling you about the book they’re going to write. Most of the time you never hear another word about it. But Seamus is a man of his word and, by the start of 2019, after a major life event (being widowed) he tentatively shared a few chapters with me, knowing that, as a very honest person and a professional writer, I would give him helpful feedback. 

the finished book -- cover design by Emma Pass 

What he didn't know was that by then, I'd started to fall for him, so I was terribly nervous reading those first chapters. I knew I'd find it hard to be in love with someone whose writing wasn't good! The fact that we've now been married for almost five years should tell you all you need to know about the quality of the book.

I'd been through the self-publishing route last year myself with Miss McVey Takes Charge https://awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.com/2025/03/awfully-big-adventures-in-self.html, but unlike me, Seamus always planned to self-publish, and it was refreshing for me to see someone so focussed on simply writing the best book he could, without worrying about the market. Luckily, being married to me, he had an editor on tap, though we also engaged someone else for a line edit. My friend, the writer Emma Pass, designed a fantastic cover. 

some of the audience at the launch (photo: Raphael Mason)

The launch was fantastic, with about a hundred people from all aspects of Seamus's life packing out the Seamus Heaney Home Place, one of Northern Ireland's best literary venues. Seamus, first as a supportive old friend and latterly as a partner, has been to all my book launches, so it was fantastic to be at his -- actually I MC'd it: it would have been even more surreal to have been simply in the audience! 

I'm proud of all my own books, but it's been lovely to be a kind of midwife for this one. Every day Seamus is getting messages from people who are enjoying it, whether racing fans or not -- there's a lot in the book about grief, recovery and friendship -- and it's wonderful to see him experiencing that connection with readers, which, as we all know, whether we write fiction or non-fiction, for adults or children, is what it's all about. 

It's my turn to publish the next book, though!