İngiliz yazar Julia Donaldson´ın gene Axel Scheffler´ın resimleriyle süslü "The Snail and The Whale" kitabı "Salyangoz ve Balina" adı ile Türkçeye çevrilmiş ve baskısı bitmiş durumda. Bu yüzden kitabın ingilizcesini tanıtmak istedim. ( Macmillan Publishing´den Let´s Read serisinden )

Hikaye, diğer salyangozlarla birlikte bir kayanın üzerinde yaşayan ve dünyayı ve denizleri gezip görmek isteyen küçük bir salyangozun, kambur bir balina ile yaptığı maceralı yolculuğu anlatıyor. Birlikte buzullardan, volkanlara, bazen fırtınada bazen güneşli havalarda yaptıkları yolculuk sonunda kitabın en can alıcı noktası geliyor ve küçücük salyangozumuz balinanın hayatını kurtarıyor...

Arkadaşlık ve özellikle de "cüssesi ne olursa olsun herkesin mutlaka güçlü bir yanı olması" üzerine güzel bir hikaye. Youtube´da hem hikayeyi dinleyebilir hem de Sydney Opera Evi´nde Tall Stories Theatre tarafından sahnelenen tiyatro oyunundan bir parça görebilirsiniz.

She was born in 1948. She grew up in London and studied Drama and French at Bristol University.

She worked for a few years in publishing and as a teacher, while also writing and performing songs and street theatre with her husband Malcolm, and writing and directing two musicals for children. She then combined a career writing songs for children’s television with bringing up a family.

In 1993, one of her songs was made into a book, A Squash and a Squeeze. Since then she has written over a hundred books and plays for children and teenagers, including the award-winning rhyming stories The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, The Snail and the Whale and Zog, all illustrated by Axel Scheffler, which are among the UK’s best-selling picture books.

Julia has also worked with different illustrators, among them Lydia Monks, Nick Sharratt and David Roberts, and has written several young fiction titles, including three books about Princess Mirror-Belle, who is the badly-behaved reflection of a well-behaved girl. Her novel for teenagers, Running on the Cracks, came out in 2009 and won the Nasen Inclusive Children’s Book Award.

Axel Scheffler Kimdir?

Axel Scheffler is the best-selling illustrator of many favourite children’s

picture books, including the award-winning The Gruffalo, which has been translated into over 40 languages. He was born in Hamburg, but now lives in London, where his artwork is increasingly inspired by his young daughter. He works in an attic studio overlooking a peaceful garden with a walnut tree and a family of foxes.