Gruffalo Granny teams up with nine literacy and disability charities to reach young readers in the National Year of Reading
10/09/2026
Celebrating the arrival of Gruffalo Granny through major charity partnerships
Today, to mark the publication of Gruffalo Granny by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, Macmillan Children’s Books, together with our charity partners, shares how every child can be part of this global celebration!
To widen access to books and reading we are working with nine leading literacy and disability charities across the UK, to bring the joy of reading with the Gruffalo to communities nationwide.
Macmillan Children’s Books is partnering with six major literacy charities, in an initiative supported by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, to donate 140,000 gifted Gruffalo books suitable for children of all ages, alongside interactive family sessions to children in disadvantaged areas.
- The National Literacy Trust
- BookTrust
- Scottish Book Trust
- Children's Book Project
- Children's Books Ireland
- Read for Good
To ensure the wonderful new story can be enjoyed by all children from publication day, Macmillan Children’s Books is also teaming up with three leading disability charities to launch three specialist formats, alongside the hardback and audio editions:
- For Children with Vision Impairment: a custom braille edition developed with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), plus an accessible PDF via their Bookshare scheme and a bespoke, audio tactile edition created with Living Paintings
- For British Sign Language (BSL) users: a BSL translation of the story produced with the National Deaf Children’s Society, available to watch online.
This initiative extends far beyond the UK. Together with 40 international publishing partners, almost 200,000 copies of Gruffalo books have been pledged as global donations. These copies will be gifted to children who live in residential care; women and children's shelters; children’s hospitals and children growing up in poverty.
The launch of Gruffalo Granny is a coordinated global movement that brings publishers and charities together to celebrate the joy of reading with families worldwide. Find out more about each of these special partnerships below . . .
The National Literacy Trust is an independent charity that empowers children, young people and adults with the literacy skills they need to succeed.
The National Literacy Trust’s Early Words Matter campaign is rooted in local communities, designed to improve outcomes for children experiencing poverty. Together with their national and local partners, the charity empowers parents, carers, and those who work with young children to build early language, communication, and literacy skills so their children can thrive.
As part of the partnership, Macmillan Children’s Books will donate 50,000 Gruffalo books, which with the support of Amazon, the National Literacy Trust will distribute through their Hubs in communities facing high levels of disadvantage. The books will support shared storytelling through the charity’s community programmes, reaching families in early years settings, Family Hubs and trusted community spaces, including faith centres and food banks. The partnership will also raise vital funds for the National Literacy Trust through book sales.
From September to November, 50p from every Gruffalo book sold in WHSmith stores will be donated to the charity. From this Christmas, 50p from every copy of The Gruffalo’s Child Activity Book sold will also support the National Literacy Trust’s work.
Find out more: https://literacytrust.org.uk/early-words-matter/the-gruffalo/
As the UK’s largest children’s reading charity, BookTrust knows that children who read regularly experience better mental well-being. This is why the charity works with families, in every community in England, Wales and Northern Ireland through over 30,000 local partners, to reach 1.4 million children every year.
Macmillan Children’s Books will donate 40,000 copies of the brand new story Gruffalo Granny, alongside The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo’s Child, and for younger readers, Have You Seen The Gruffalo?. The books will be made available to libraries along with exclusive activity sheets.
Delivery to participating libraries is planned for the autumn and the books will form part of this year’s BookTrust Storytime programme.
Scottish Book Trust is a national charity that believes everyone living in Scotland should have access to books. The charity provides opportunities to improve life chances through books and the fundamental skills of reading and writing.
Scottish Book Trust is working with Macmillan Children’s Books to distribute thousands of Gruffalo books through theTrust’s flagship programmes. 12,000 books will be shared through Bookbug for the Home family kits, providing specialist outreach support to help young families. The books will also be used to support early years training and tackling child poverty, as well as early learning and childcare students to develop their literacy work. 10,000 copies of Gruffalo Granny will go to foodbanks, children's hospitals and other charities as part of Scottish Book Trust's annual Christmas Appeal.
Find out more: https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/
The Children’s Book Project is a national book gifting charity that works across the UK to distribute thousands of new and gently used books to children and their families less able to access books of their own. We gift preloved and publisher donated books through events in schools, prisons, women's groups, food banks and community groups that are inclusive, joyful and have a tangible impact on every family that participates.
Children’s Book Project are proud to be working with Macmillan Children’s Books to give copies of Gruffalo Granny and selected other Gruffalo titles via the prisons and food banks with which we work, and also via Comfort Cases. These books will be distributed in the run up to Christmas, to provide a gift to children who might not otherwise have a present over the course of the festive season.
Find out more: https://childrensbookproject.co.uk/
Reading changes lives. Read for Good helps children and young people to transform their world through the magic of books and stories.
Our hospital and school programmes deliver the magic of books and storytelling to children in UK hospitals, and inspire hundreds of thousands of school children to get excited about books and reading throughout the year. Readathon® is the original sponsored read for primary and secondary schools that has inspired millions of children to read whatever they choose while raising money to help others.
Books and stories can have a particularly profound and transportative effect on children and young people in crisis. Gifting a specially wrapped Gruffalo story in partnership with Macmillan Children's Books to children in hospitals will bring joy, connection and distraction to those families spending time in hospital over Christmas and for many children, their own book to keep and share.
Find out more: www.readforgood.org
Children’s Books Ireland is the national charity and arts organisation that champions every child’s right to develop a love of reading. Our mission at Children’s Books Ireland is to inspire a love of reading in children and young people on the island of Ireland, and to champion equitable access for all to excellent books.
Working alongside Eason, Ireland's leading book retailer, and Macmillan Children’s Books, Children’s Books Ireland is launching a heartwarming "Buy One, Gift One" campaign, aimed at nurturing a love of reading in children across the Republic of Ireland.
From 29th June 2026, for 12 months, Eason customers will have the opportunity to make a direct impact on a child's life and their love of reading. For every Gruffalo book sold by Eason in the Republic of Ireland, Macmillan Children's Books will donate a copy of Gruffalo Granny to national charity Children's Books Ireland to gift to a child in need. This partnership aims to donate up to 20,000 books, ensuring more children experience the joy of owning their own story.
To learn more about our work and discover great book recommendations for readers aged 0—18, please visit www.childrensbooksireland.ie
The National Deaf Children’s Society, the charity for deaf children with any level of hearing loss, is proud to support the launch of Gruffalo Granny.
The charity has worked with Macmillan Children’s Books and deaf presenter Radha Starr to produce a signed story of Gruffalo Granny in British Sign Language (BSL), allowing deaf BSL users to enjoy the launch of the book at the same time as their hearing friends. Signed stories allow children and families who use BSL to experience the joy of storytelling and are a powerful tool for promoting literacy for deaf children in the early years. The National Deaf Children's Society is delighted to support Macmillan Children’s Books, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler in ensuring deaf children have equal access to the latest adventures of the much beloved Gruffalo.
Find out more: https://www.ndcs.org.uk/
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) works every single day to help ensure reading is accessible to children and young people with vision impairment and to help parents of visually impaired children to read along with them.
The charity’s online shop will be stocking a fantastic Shared Reading issue of Gruffalo Granny, which has the original text and images underneath braille printed on clear overlays. This is perfect for parents or children with vision impairment to read along together. It’s available in uncontracted UEB (grade1) or contracted UEB (grade 2) braille from the RNIB shop at Gruffalo Granny – original picture book with braille | RNIB Shop
RNIB Bookshare will also have Gruffalo Granny available in PDF format, available to schools signed up to Bookshare at https://www.rnibbookshare.org/
Bookshare also has The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child in PDF format.
For many more books in accessible formats visit https://www.rnib.org.uk/living-with-sight-loss/independent-living/leisure/reading-and-books/
Living Paintings is a UK charity dedicated to opening up the world of books, reading and imagery for children who are blind or visually impaired. Through our postal library, we produce books and resources that combine tactile pictures, clear braille pages and exclusive rich audio descriptions, and send them directly to readers' homes, schools and communities completely free of charge.
The Living Paintings audio tactile version of Gruffalo Granny began with the original text and artwork. The team chose key characters and elements of the story to turn into raised, tactile images, carefully designed so that shapes, textures and details can be understood by touch.
Dame Imelda Staunton, long-time friend of Living Paintings, recorded an immersive audio description, capturing the visual world of the Gruffalo Granny story; the characters, colours, expressions and scenes, in vivid spoken detail to which we added sound effects and music to bring the story to life through sound.
Clear braille pages with the story were interleaved, so that sighted and visually impaired people can read together. All combined together, the finished Gruffalo Granny was then quality-checked for accuracy by people who are blind before being added to our library, ready to be packaged and posted on September 10th, completely free, directly to children who are blind or visually impaired at home, in school and in their communities across the UK.
Find out more: https://livingpaintings.org/
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