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Home > Books and reading > For children > Children's Laureate
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Children's Laureate

Children's Laureate

The role of Children’s Laureate is awarded once every two years to an eminent writer or illustrator of children’s books to celebrate outstanding achievement in their field.


Julia Donaldson, author of the multi-million selling children’s book The Gruffalo is the seventh Children’s Laureate. The first Scottish based author to receive the Laureateship, Donaldson said at her appointment in June 2011: ‘It is a great honour to have been chosen as the new Children’s Laureate. Over the next two years I hope to find every opportunity to be a spokesperson and advocate for children’s books and reading.’

 

Julia Donaldson is the author of over 120 books and plays for children and teenagers, including The Gruffalo (the animation of which was nominated for an Oscar and a BAFTA), Room on the Broom, Stick Man, Cave Baby, Freddie and the Fairy and What the Ladybird Heard – some of the UK’s best-selling picture books – and the award-winning teenage novel Running on the Cracks.


During her two-year tenure Julia will bring her passion for the spoken word, rhyme, song and drama to the fore, by making children’s literature in performance a key focus of her laureateship:

With my background in plays and song-writing, I am particularly keen to develop projects which link books with drama and music, and to explore the ways performance can help children enjoy reading and grow in confidence.

 

Donaldson will also join previous Children’s Laureates in using her appointment as a platform to champion literature campaigns that are close to her heart:

 

As someone with minor hearing difficulties myself, I am very interested in promoting signed stories for deaf children, and of course I want to add my voice as Children’s Laureate to the libraries campaign. So drama, music, stories for deaf children, libraries, plus building on the great work of my six predecessors as laureate: these will be my “big things”, and they are all linked to the “biggest thing of all” – the pleasure and richness to be gained from reading.

 

The former Children’s Laureates are: Anthony Browne (2009-2011); Michael Rosen (2007-2009); Jacqueline Wilson (2005-2007); Michael Morpurgo (2003-2005); Anne Fine (2001-2003) and Quentin Blake (1999-2001).

 

Visit the Children's Laureate site