Skip to main contentSkip to navigation
Print subscriptions
Newsletters
Sign in

Axel Scheffler


June 2025

  • Pitch-perfect … Julia Donaldson.

    Ranked
    ‘Oh no! It’s a Gruffalo!’ Julia Donaldson’s 15 best books – ranked!

    Her rhyming tales have enchanted children and parents the world over – but which is the best? From a busker’s cat to a greedy rat, it’s time to rate the hits

May 2025

  • The Mouse and the Gruffalo walk in the forest in a still from the 2009 film The Gruffalo.

    The Guardian view on the Gruffalo: a well-timed comeback, wart and all

    Editorial: The next challenge for Julia Donaldson’s monster is to get its claws into parents and persuade more of them to read aloud

April 2025

  • The Gruffalo.

    Gruffalo to return with first new book in more than 20 years

    Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler have announced they are working on a new outing for the monster in the deep dark wood, due out in September 2026

March 2025

  • Ruth Calkin, Mark Esaias and Gilbert Taylor in A Squash and a Squeeze.

    A Squash and a Squeeze review – Donaldson and Scheffler favourite crammed with songs

    Ingenious puppetry and jolly performances help animate the beloved story about an ever-expanding indoor menagerie

December 2024

  • Jayde Adams poses for The Guardian. Makeup and hair: Guy Common Styling: Krishnan Parmer Grace Teo (Good Luck Studio, Bristol)

    ‘I’m gonna be like, so famous to children!’: Jayde Adams on Strictly, sisterhood and her kids’ TV classic

    Want a raucous Christmas? Invite the Alma’s Not Normal star. Ahead of her role in the BBC’s animated adaptation of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s Tiddler, she talks lobsters, prosecco – and Adele

August 2024

  • Zog and the Flying Doctors, staged by Freckle Productions, at Cadogan Hall, London.

    Play time
    Zog and the Flying Doctors review – plucky princess and her crew take flight

    Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s tale about an accident-prone dragon is brought to life with sparky rhymes, nuanced acting and high energy

June 2024

  • Detail from election artwork by Katharine Hamnett that reads 'your vote is your most powerful tool'

    Anish Kapoor among artists featuring in youth vote billboard campaign

    Exclusive: Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler also contributes drawing encouraging young people to vote

January 2024

  • The library in the doll’s house, a 1:12 scale replica on an Edwardian residence, that was given as a gift from the nation to Queen Mary after the first world war.

    Tom Parker Bowles picked for mini library project championed by his mum

    Tom Parker Bowles among 21 writers providing snapshot of contemporary literature in initiative supported by the queen

August 2023

  • The Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson and illustrator Axel Scheffler whose book has sold more than 13.5m copies.

    The Gruffalo is likely to be a child’s first book, UK survey finds

    Collecting data from 2,000 parents, retailer The Works found the bestseller was the most popular choice when parents pick what to read to their children for the first time

July 2023

  • Henri and the Machine by Isabelle Marinov, illustrated by Olga Shtonda.

    Picture books for children – reviews

  • From left … Felicia Akin-Tayo, Tom Capper, Andrea Sadler and Robert Penny in The Smeds and the Smoods.

    Play time
    The Smeds and the Smoos review – songs and screams in Donaldson and Scheffler’s jolly voyage

December 2022

  • Albie Sachs, outside the constitutional court of South Africa in Johannesburg in February 2022.

    Top 10s
    Top 10 books about freedom

  • Observer New Review<br>STRICTLY Observer New Review ONLY. APPROVAL WAS NEEDED. Emma Thompson with Axel Scheffler produce a new book with V&amp;A - Jim's Spectacular Christmas.

    ‘I love writing for children’: Emma Thompson and Axel Scheffler on their amazing shaggy dog story

September 2022

  • Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.

    ‘At first she didn’t like my drawings’: Axel Scheffler and Julia Donaldson on three decades of collaboration

    In a rare joint interview, the creators of The Gruffalo talk about baddies, Brexit – and the bumpy beginning to their partnership

December 2021

  • Superworm

    Julia Donaldson reveals tussle over opening couplet of Superworm

    Author backed down over publisher’s concerns about potentially embarrassing misinterpretations

June 2021

  • Smartest Giant in Town.

    The Smartest Giant in Town review – a very tall tale

    Nutty animals and witty puppetry liven up this at times bleak version of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s picture book

May 2021

  • The Smartest Giant, played by Duane Gooden at Little Angel Theatre, London.

    Behind the scenes of The Smartest Giant in Town – in pictures

    A musical production of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s children’s book The Smartest Giant in Town is opening at the Little Angel theatre in Islington, north London. Guardian photographer David Levene went behind the scenes
    Gallery27

January 2021

  • A new, lockdown-themed illustration of the witch from Room on the Broom by Axel Scheffler, with words by Julia Donaldson. Stay at home with more from your favourite friends Axel Scheffler and Julia Donaldson present a new series of topical verses and pictures in response to the national crisis

    Lockdown culture
    Broom to Zoom: Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler launch new Covid tales

    The author and illustrator of Room on the Broom and The Gruffalo have released more images showing their classic characters contending with the pandemic

May 2020

  • Richard Osman, the Gruffalo and Harry Potter.

    Lockdown reading
    From Harry Potter at Home to the National Shelf Service: bookish fun for the lockdown

  • Axel Scheffler’s mini book for the British Library project

    British Library asks nation's children to write miniature books in lockdown

About 26 results for Axel Scheffler
12
Explore more on these topics