We are very excited to be working with Magic Light Pictures again and are looking forward to families having a new and exciting reason to visit the forest throughout the year.” Haughmond Hill will be hosting the new Zog trail from February 3. The themes explored in the story - at one point Princess Pearl administers vaccinations - might lead you to think it was created specifically with the pandemic in mind, but you'd be wrong. The book was in fact published three years ago, but its relevance today is striking to say the least.

He’s the keenest pupil and he tries as hard as he can to learn to fly, roar and breathe fire. But every year the gold star eludes him when his valiant efforts end in mishap and a kind young girl with medical ambitions finds him and patches up his bumps and bruises. Then in Year Four all the young dragons are instructed to capture a princess. Class got into groups and came up with an action for each scene in the story. Volunteers then showed their actions to the class to remember the story. Zog, the biggest dragon at Dragon School, learns different skills throughout the book, with a few blunders along the way. But with the help of Princess Pearl, he eventually wins a golden star and agrees to go out and help other people/creatures as an ambulance for the flying doctors: Princess Pearl and Gadabout. Booktrust reviewing Zog, wrote "The illustrations are as vivid, imaginative and amusing as you would expect from the illustrator of The Gruffalo, with subtle details that children and adults will love. The perfectly crafted rhyming text is ideal for reading aloud. And the ambitious princess is a great touch." [1]What clearly came across to me in the movie was that while Zog and Pearl tried their best to live up to others’ expectations of them, they were denying who they really were. When they were honest with themselves and others about how they were feeling and what they truly wanted out of life, they were given the opportunity to fulfil their dreams. In Year Five the dragons learn to fight, at which moment a bumbling knight, Sir Gadabout the Great, arrives, claiming he is going to rescue Princess Pearl. Zog and Gadabout square up for a fight about who is going to keep Pearl. 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 usually try to read the book before I see the movie because the book is always better, right? This time was different. I was introduced to Zog and Pearl via the short film, and it was only as I was watching the Special Features that I realised Zog had books written about him long before he was animated.

Get ready to join Zog and his dragon friends on an adventure through the forest! Have you got what it takes to win all the golden stars? 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. Jon Meggitt, CEO at Arcade said: "Several of us at Arcade have young children and know first-hand just how much Zog means to them. Bringing him and his friends to life in magical AR, and giving families even more reasons to get out into forests across the country, has been one of the most exciting and rewarding projects we have worked on. We’re very proud of the result and can’t wait to see all the little dragons earning their golden stars just like Zog.” The sequel, titled Zog and the Flying Doctors was published by Alison Green Books on 7 September 2016. On 12 November 2019, it was announced that Magic Light Pictures and BBC One would team up once again on Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's Zog And The Flying Doctors for Christmas Day 2020 at 2:35pm, with music by French composer and musician Rene Aubry. Zog and the Flying Doctors was released on DVD on 22 March 2021 in the United Kingdom.

Julia Donaldson Adaptations

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler come up with another winner with 'Zog', who is the biggest and keenest dragon in school but who proves to be accident prone when undertaking any task. He is trying to win a golden star but finds himself thwarted at every turn. The children then used their own story maps and had two lessons to re-tell the story in their own words in their Literacy books (I included an input on rhyming here - children to identify and match the rhymes from Zog)