The Smeds and the Smoos

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Write a sequel to this book? What might happen to the Smeds and the Smoos (and their new baby) next?

I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married. The Smeds and the Smoos follows two young aliens. A Smed, named Janet and a Smoo named Bill. The Smeds and the Smoos are rival. Janet and Bills’ families tell them stories to warn them of the others. But Janet and Bill fall in love.Write a diary entry for Janet or Bill from a time when they crept off to play in the Wurpular Wood together. This story reminds me a bit of Romeo and Juliet, and the film adaptation of Gnomeo and Juliet as they all focus on a forbidden love based on family views. Design your own alien and create a character profile for it. Where does it live? Does it have any special abilities? 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. 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.

This story feels hyper relevant when you look at everything that's going on in the world at the moment. Republicans vs. Democrats, Conservatives vs. Labour, everywhere you look it's a red vs. blue world and for little ones who have no understanding of politics and no idea why everyone is so angry at each other it must be quite scary. It feels like The Smeds and the Smoos has arrived at exactly the right time, bursting onto the scene to remind children that underneath we are all the same. It doesn't matter what colour you are, and oftentimes the people warning you to stay away from others have no idea what they're really talking about. While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. This books follows the story of a smed and a smoo who are both warned by their families to avoid the other. One is red and the other is blue. Despite their families views the smed and the smoo run away together and get married. Whilst Janet and Bill have ran away, their families look for them and in the process begin to form positive relationships. Make up a new story about two people, animals or aliens who want to be friends but are not allowed.The story uses phonetically decodable words and rhymes throughout which would give children the opportunity to read the story for themselves and recognise word patterns. Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers. 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. Look at the other plants and creatures in the illustrations and think about how they might be adapted to living on the alien planet.

Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol. I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him).There are lots of made-up words in this book. Can you make a glossary to explain what they all mean? Could you make up some of your own words and write definitions? 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.

I feel conflicted about The Smeds and the Smoos. A Smed and a Smoo fall in love despite multiple warnings from their grandparents about why they should be avoiding each other, but unlike Romeo and Juliet this love story has a happy ending.Julia Donaldson se ‘Goorgomgaai’ en ‘Goorgomgaatjie’ is seker van die heel lieflikste moderne kinderboeke. Beide, asook hierdie een, se teks is in vrolike rymtaal en die volkleur illustrasies is deur Axel Scheffler. Die Afrikaanse vertaling is deur die alombeminde Jaco Jacobs en die boek is in ‘n pragtige groot hardeband formaat, perfek vir klein handjies van jong selflesers. Dis egter ewe geskik vir dramaties voorlees en prentjies wys vir die kleintjies en dra op ‘n speelse wyse die boodskap van ‘onbekend maak onbemind’ aan kinders oor. Volwassenes wat graag wil weet watter kleur ‘n rooi Smooi en ‘n blou Smou se baba is, kan gerus ook hierna loer. Make a list of all the rhyming words in the book. Can you think of other words that rhyme with those? The Smeds and the Smoos visit other planets to find Janet and Bill. Can you imagine a new planet that they might explore? Make a list of the ways that the Smeds and the Smoos are similar / different. Is being different from others a bad thing? I think the story carries some good messages of tolerance and acceptance whilst appealing to a younger audience. It shows generational differences and views, demonstrating how the views of the younger generation are important and can help to open older generations to changing their views and beliefs.