A Squash and A Squeeze began life as a song written for television! It’s the one that started it all – the very first publication (1993) by Julia Donaldson and the beginning of a fruitful partnership with illustrator Axel Scheffler.
Yep! Can hear the song influence. This definitely explains the rhythm, rhyme and ‘page turning pace’ characteristics so typical of Julia’s picture books.
A simple tale with a moral. A little old lady – complete with grey hair tied in a bun ( the nifty handy work of illustrator Axel Scheffler), decides her neat little house just isn’t big enough. A wise old man, so typical of fairy stories, pops by. He encourages the lady to take in, one at a time, all manner of animals until – yes you’ve guessed it – the house is a ‘squash and a squeeze’. One by one the animals are removed and the lady is grateful and appreciative of what she has, a moral reminiscent of The Smartest Giant in Town.
Julia Donaldson was the UK Children’s Laureate from June 2011 until June 2012.
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