Julia Donaldson Books in Order: The Gruffalo Reading Guide

If you've spotted a new Julia Donaldson title on the shelves this month, you're not imagining it: Gruffalo Granny, the latest addition to the much-loved Gruffalo world, has just landed. This guide is for parents, grandparents and anyone buying for a small child who wants to know where the new book fits in, which Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler picture books to read first, and how to build a collection that will get read again and again rather than gathering dust on the shelf.

What is Gruffalo Granny about?

Gruffalo Granny is a picture book by writer Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler, published on 10 September 2026. It is a sequel to The Gruffalo's Child, which was released 22 years earlier, and it introduces a new character: the mother of the Gruffalo himself. For families who have read the original story dozens of times at bedtime, this is a genuinely new chapter in a world they already know, rather than a spin-off character with no connection to the mouse, the fox, the owl and the snake wandering through the deep dark wood.

Because it's brand new, Gruffalo Granny is also a sensible starting point if you're buying for a child who already owns the earlier books and wants "the next one" rather than a duplicate. You'll find it, along with the rest of the range, in our Picture Books collection, linked at the end of this guide.

The Gruffalo books in order

Before you buy Gruffalo Granny, it's worth knowing where it sits chronologically within the story world, especially if you're buying for a child who hasn't met the Gruffalo yet and you want to read the books in the order the family grew up with them:

• The Gruffalo — the original story of a mouse who invents an imaginary monster to scare off predators, only for the real thing to turn up.
• The Gruffalo's Child — the Gruffalo's own child ventures into the wood against her father's warning that the mouse might be out there.
• Gruffalo Granny — the newest instalment, introducing the Gruffalo's mother and published this September.

You don't strictly need to read them in this order for a young child to enjoy each story on its own terms, but reading them this way does let older children (and the adults doing the reading) appreciate how the family and the wood have grown over the years.

Beyond the Gruffalo: other Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler picture books

The Gruffalo isn't the only world this author-illustrator pairing has built. Over the years they've produced a run of rhyming picture books that share the same warmth, repetition and gentle peril that makes the Gruffalo stories so re-readable: stories about a witch and her broomstick, a worm who can be chopped into pieces and simply grows back, a stick-shaped hero who keeps getting mistaken for something useful, and a rat who learns that greed doesn't pay. If your child has worn out their copy of the Gruffalo, these other titles from the same partnership are the natural next step, and you'll find a good spread of them in our wider Children's Books collection.

What makes these books work so well for early reading isn't just the pictures — it's the rhythm. Julia Donaldson writes in tight, bouncy verse that children pick up and start reciting from memory long before they can actually read the words themselves. That's a genuinely useful thing for building confidence: a child "reading" a book they've memorised is still practising page-turning, left-to-right tracking and story structure, all skills that feed into proper reading later on.

Which age group are these books actually right for?

Donaldson and Scheffler's picture books are generally aimed at the pre-school and early primary years, but there's a genuine spread within that. The shortest, simplest rhyming stories tend to suit the youngest listeners, while books with more characters and a slightly longer narrative arc — like the Gruffalo titles themselves — hold up well for children who are starting to follow a proper plot with a beginning, middle and end.

If you're buying for a toddler who's still mostly interested in pointing at pictures and repeating sounds, browse our Ages 3–5 collection. For a child who's just started school and is ready for slightly longer stories and their first go at reading along, our Ages 5–7 collection is a better fit — many children in this age bracket are also moving on to early chapter books alongside their picture books, so it's worth having both on hand.

Building a proper Gruffalo shelf

Because these are stories children come back to again and again, they're genuinely good value bought as a set rather than picked up one at a time. A shelf with the full run of Gruffalo titles sitting next to each other also makes it easy for a child to pick their own bedtime story, which is no small thing when you're trying to get a three-year-old to agree to lights out. If you want to put together a proper collection in one go, our Children's Collections and Box Sets & Collections ranges are the easiest way to do it, and buying a set from LetsBuyBooks means brand-new copies at a genuine discount off RRP, delivered quickly across the UK, rather than paying full price title by title.

Julia Donaldson books as gifts

Picture books are one of the most reliable presents you can buy for a small child — they're not seasonal, they don't need batteries, and a book that becomes a firm favourite gets read hundreds of times over its life, which is about as good as value-for-money gets. A new Gruffalo title is a particularly safe bet for a birthday or Christmas gift this year, since it's fresh enough to feel like a genuine treat even for a child who already owns the earlier books. For more ideas along the same lines, our Gifts for Kids collection and Best Books to Gift collection are both worth a browse, particularly if you're buying for more than one child and want everything wrapped and sorted in one go.

A few tips for reading these books aloud

If you're new to the Gruffalo world, a couple of things make these stories land better at bedtime. First, don't rush the rhymes — the repeated phrases and refrains are there for the child to join in with, and most will start chiming in themselves after two or three reads. Second, use the pictures: Axel Scheffler's illustrations are full of small details in the background that reward a slower read, so it's worth pointing things out rather than just narrating the text on autopilot. Finally, don't feel obliged to read strictly in publication order every time — once a child knows the characters, jumping between the books based on mood (a scarier read before Halloween, a gentler one before bed) works just as well.

Start with Gruffalo Granny, or start from the beginning

Whether you're introducing a new reader to the Gruffalo for the first time or adding the latest instalment to a well-worn family collection, the appeal of these books hasn't changed: sharp rhymes, a proper story, and pictures worth lingering over. If you're building a picture-book shelf from scratch, start with the original Gruffalo and work forward; if you've already got a Gruffalo fan at home, Gruffalo Granny is the obvious next purchase.

Browse the full range of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler titles, along with the rest of our early-years picture books, in our Picture Books collection — all brand new copies, at a discount off RRP, with fast UK delivery.