Spinderella: The perfect illustrated children’s picture book for Halloween, from the author of The Gruffalo and Tales From Acorn Wood!

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I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married.

Spinderella (Blue Go Bananas) by Julia Donaldson | Goodreads Spinderella (Blue Go Bananas) by Julia Donaldson | Goodreads

This one outlines the adventures of a young spider who lives with her woman-headed family in a school and wishes to learn numeracy. She doesn't get a lot of family support but goes on to prove them all wrong, with the help of her hairy godmother. Spinderella wants nothing more than to be able to count and you'd think that living in a primary school with her mother and siblings that it would all come naturally but not so. Spinderella is left out of the equation and her family aren't interested in numbers at all. But all is not lost, her Hairy Godmother appears and guides her towards the wonderful world of numbers much to Spinderella's delight and, ultimately, her family too.One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading. Spinderella" by Julia Donaldson is a cute story about a cute little spider, with plenty of maths concepts embedded. Counting 1-20, simple division, multiplication and maps all feature throughout the story.

Spinderella - Julia Donaldson Spinderella - Julia Donaldson

This is a story about a spider called Spinderella who wants to learn about numbers but her family dismiss her desire as they don't think learning to count is important. Then, a hairy godmother arrives to make Spinderella's dream of learning numbers come true and she is finally able to show her family the benefits of counting through a game of football.Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers. I really enjoy writing verse, even though it can be fiendishly difficult. I used to memorise poems as a child and it means a lot to me when parents tell me their child can recite one of my books. Before Malcolm and I had our three sons we used to go busking together and I would write special songs for each country; the best one was in Italian about pasta. I also continued to write “grown-up” songs and perform them in folk clubs and on the radio, and have recently released two CDs of these songs.