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He’s got knobbly knees, turned-out toes, a poisonous wart at the end of his nose … and he’s back, for the first time in more than 20 years: Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler have announced they are working on a new Gruffalo book.
Due out in September 2026, the as-yet-untitled picture book will return to the world of the bestselling stories The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child, which were published in 1999 and 2004 respectively. The books are among the most popular children’s titles in the world, with The Gruffalo having sold 3.2m copies to date, and The Gruffalo’s Child 2.1m copies.
The new story “sees the return of much-loved characters in a fresh and exciting adventure that has all the hallmarks of a Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler classic,” according to the book’s publisher Macmillan.
“It’s always a challenge to write a sequel,” Donaldson said. “I actually had the basic idea for the story a long time ago, but couldn’t think how to develop it.”
It was only when the charity National Literacy Trust (NLT) used the first two books as part of one of its campaigns last year that the writer was “spurred on to get my idea out of the cupboard and see once and for all if I could turn it into a really satisfying story,” she said. “To my surprise, I managed to do just that! I was of course delighted when Axel came on board, and am even more so now that I’ve seen the brilliant sketches he’s already done for the new book.”
Scheffler said: “Never say never – a lesson learned for me who, whenever asked, denied the possibility of another visit to the deep dark wood. Till one day out of the blue there came a wonderfully clever and inspired new text by Julia. How does she do this? Could I decline? Of course not!”
The German illustrator and British writer’s first collaboration was a picture book about an unhappy elderly lady who brings a group of farmyard animals into her small home, A Squash and a Squeeze, published in 1993. Since then, Scheffler and Donaldson have published more than 30 books together, the most famous being the Gruffalo titles.
The original Gruffalo story is written in rhyming couplets and follows a mouse walking through a wood where he comes across a number of predators before finally meeting the large and terrifying Gruffalo. It was inspired by a Chinese folk tale called The Fox that Borrows the Terror of a Tiger, about a child who cons a jungle tiger into submission.
“I intended the book to be about a tiger, but I just couldn’t get anything to rhyme with ‘tiger’,” Donaldson told the Observer in 2004. “But then I came up with ‘Silly old fox, doesn’t he know / there’s no such thing as a blank-blank-oh.’ Then I began with ‘Grrrr’, which I hoped would sound quite scary. Then all I needed was a word of three syllables, ending in ‘oh’. Somehow, ‘Gruffalo’ came to mind.”
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The original Gruffalo book is available in 113 languages and dialects and has been adapted into plays and an Academy Award-nominated animated film. It has also inspired a range of merchandise, a commemorative coin, a theme park ride in Chessington World of Adventures and and a series of woodland trails.
Macmillan will be partnering with NLT and other charitable organisations across the globe for the publication of the new book, with plans to drive an international children’s reading and storytelling campaign. This follows NLT’s report at the end of last year which showed that only 1 in 3 children enjoy reading in their spare time, the lowest level since 2005.
Jonathan Douglas, NLT’s chief executive, said: “Reading and sharing stories is critical for shaping a child’s early speech and language development and we can’t think of a better way to support families in igniting their children’s love of stories and reading than with the magic and influence of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s The Gruffalo.”
