New book from Gruffalo author ‘like a fairy story’
Pan Macmillan Australia
March 2026
ISBN: 9781035066704
RRP: $29.99
You don’t get much more a golden partnership than Dame Julia Catherine Donaldson DBE, British writer/playwright and 2011–2013 Children’s Laureate, along with Catherine Rayner, multi-award winning writer/illustrator including the Kate Greenaway Medal – both of them legendary bestsellers around the world. And this beautiful fairy tale which Julia says was inspired by an old Scottish folktale is another absolutely charming example of their respective talents.
A young girl rescues a bird with a broken wing and helps it heal. When she releases it, the bird leaves behind a feather and this magic feather enables the girl to understand the birds’ languages. The girl sets out to find her fortune, or at least make her way in a harsh world and after some hiccups finds herself in Queen’s garden protecting a robin’s nest from a maruading cat.
The robin takes the girl to the Queen who is besieged by squawking, screaming, screeching birds on all sides. The girl discovers the source of their agitation. The Queen’s men are in the forest about to chop down trees. When the girl explains this to the Queen, the work is stopped, the birds are safe, and the Queen has blessed silence.
Her gratitude for the girl’s help and rewards her handsomely. While she is invited to stay, Susanna misses her home and the birds there so returns to her own place, with enough ‘fortune’ to keep her – and the birds – safe.
It is a sweet rhyming story that has a lot of depth behind it which would be worth unpacking with children. The fact that kindness and small actions done unselfishly will often reap unexpected benefits, though that’s not why we do them.
And it goes without saying that both the text and the illustrations are superb – so very almost dreamily suited to the tone and intent of the narrative. It’s a chirpy 5 🐦🦉🦢🐦⬛🦚 for readers from around Prep upwards.
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