A family film based on the picture book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. The story of a keen young dragon in his first years at Dragon School. More Julia Donaldson is one of today's most popular writers. Her bestselling titles include The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo's Child and Room on the Broom. Although she is best-known for her picture books, Julia also writes longer novels, plays and songs. She lives in Glasgow and spends a lot of time on stage performing her brilliant sell-out singalong shows! Watch this book trailer by Eastbourne Library’s Chatterbooks book group. Could you make your own trailer for Zog?

The little girl helps Zog at different points in the story. Can you learn some first aid? Could you make a poster to teach first aid skills to other people?Naturally I followed up by borrowing the book from the library, which solidified my love for these characters. While I adore this book, I actually enjoyed the movie more. Shh!!! Don’t tell the book I said that. My real breakthrough was THE GRUFFALO, again illustrated by Axel. We work separately - he’s in London and I’m in Glasgow - but he sends me letters with lovely funny pictures on the envelopes.

Could you write a similar story showing what different creatures might learn at their own schools (e.g. a unicorn, a mermaid, a goblin)? In this much-loved picture book, a little mouse walks through the woods and encounters a fox, an owl and a snake. This is another great read from the Donaldson/Scheffler team. The illustration’s are in the same vein as those you would expect from Gruffalo and the like; clever, funny, brightly coloured and plenty to accompany the story for a little reader. The story explains what the dragons learn each year at school. Could you make a story / poem about the things that you have learned during your time at school? I usually try to read the book before I see the movie because the book is always better, right? This time was different. I was introduced to Zog and Pearl via the short film, and it was only as I was watching the Special Features that I realised Zog had books written about him long before he was animated.What a good idea!” I’d like to introduce you to my new favourite dragon, Zog. He’s Madam Dragon’s most enthusiastic student and he desperately wants to earn one of his teacher’s golden stars. Throughout the book Madam Dragon’s students learn all of the dragon basics, including flying, roaring and breathing fire. “Now that you’ve been shown, you can practise on your own” While Zog is practicing his new skills he encounters Pearl, a caring, friendly young girl. Throughout the years they continue to meet and become friends. 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.

But a mysterious girl keeps coming to his rescue. And when Zog faces his toughest test yet, she may be just the person to help Zog win classroom glory! Investigate which materials would be suitable for Sir Gadabout’s armour. Which materials are the strongest? I also enjoyed the character of the leading lady, I can’t tell you her name without spoiling a plot twist! It was brilliant to have a strong minded girl at the centre of everything. She makes her own decisions, is very brave and gets her man. What more could you want? It is funny to see her sorting out the dragons and her knight. She makes very good life choices too, helping others and helping herself. A family film based on the much-loved picture book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. The main idea of the story is pretty cool: Madam Dragon runs an elementary school for dragons, where little dragons learn all of the necessary skills and arts of being a dragon: first-graders learn flying, second-graders roaring, third-graders breathing fire, fourth-graders stealing princesses, and so on (you get the idea).

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler come up with another winner with 'Zog', who is the biggest and keenest dragon in school but who proves to be accident prone when undertaking any task. He is trying to win a golden star but finds himself thwarted at every turn. Zog, the biggest dragon at Dragon School, learns different skills throughout the book, with a few blunders along the way. But with the help of Princess Pearl, he eventually wins a golden star and agrees to go out and help other people/creatures as an ambulance for the flying doctors: Princess Pearl and Gadabout.

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. The children then used their own story maps and had two lessons to re-tell the story in their own words in their Literacy books (I included an input on rhyming here - children to identify and match the rhymes from Zog) In Year 2, Madam Dragon ‘implores’ the dragons to roar louder. What does ‘implore’ mean? Can you think of any synonyms? Volunteers then read their re-telling aloud to the class (two read their stories aloud in the class assembly to the school).

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.