Donaldson and Oxenbury partner on picture book

Picture book greats Julia Donaldson and Helen Oxenbury are collaborating for the first time on a picture book that will be published by Penguin Random House Children’s next year.

The Giant Jumperee is about Rabbit, who realises that the “Giant Jumperee” is lurking in his burrow. The story was first created in 2000 as a play for Pearson’s Rigby Star series but Donaldson has reworked the text into a picture book.

Editor Anna Barnes, who acquired the world trade rights from Oxenbury and Donaldson's agent Caroline Sheldon, said she “couldn’t be more excited” to publish the book. “Julia’s clever, child-friendly writing is matched perfectly by Helen’s expressive and characterful illustration and I know that this book will become a future classic for generations of children," she said.

Publication is slated in hardback for April 2017.

Donaldson is the UK’s most successful children’s author and has notched up sales of more than £10m for six years in a row. Her bestselling title in 2015 was Stick Man (Scholastic), selling 124,000 units for £541,000.

Oxenbury has illustrated titles such as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which won the Kate Greenaway medal in 1999, and Michael Rosen’s www.thebookseller.com/news/channel-4-adapt-bear-hunt-picture-book-310135">We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (Walker Books).