Julia Donaldson, known to millions of unsleepy children and their drooping adult bedtime readers as the creator of the Gruffalo, he of the "terrible tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws", has been appointed the new children's laureate.
"The laureateship is an honour but it's not the kind of honour you can just bask in, so I'm planning to have quite an active two years," she said. "I'm hoping to bring some drama and music to the job. I always act out my own stories with lots of audience participation so I'm planning to do lots more of that. I hope to encourage and inspire children to act stories out, though it's too early to say whether there will be one major theatrical event."
Donaldson becomes the seventh laureate, and was described as "a wonderful choice" by one of her predecessors, the poet Michael Rosen.
"She has written such accessible and brilliant books and she's so clever and funny. She believes in taking her stuff out to kids, and sharing it," he said.
Her immediate predecessor, the illustrator Anthony Browne, left her an open letter urging: "Do everything you can to support libraries – God knows, they need every bit of help they can get nowadays." Everyone, he warned, "will pay the price in the long term" for school and public library closures.
In fact Donaldson, who lives near Glasgow and is the first Scottish-based laureate, needed no urging. In recent months she has flung herself into the campaign to save libraries, leading a protest meeting at the Scottish parliament, signing petitions, and turning up at readings in libraries in Scotland and England.
She is promising even more ardent efforts in her new role.
"I'd love to do a libraries tour from Land's End to John O'Groats," she said. "The children who would come to events in libraries would have been briefed beforehand that they would come to perform something to me, so the first 10 minutes of each session they might perform a class poem they had written or act out a favourite picture book.
"Maybe I'll be able to talk to the minister of culture and persuade the government to have some kind of overall plan because at the moment I feel all the library cuts and closures are very piecemeal, so I'll do what I can," she added.
Donaldson is expecting to be very busy in her new role: "Anne Fine, one of the previous laureates, sent me an email saying the most important thing is to book two really good holidays."
She already receives sackloads of post, including mass write-ins from at least 30 schools a month; she puts her favourites on display in her bathroom. "I got one the other day saying: 'Dear Julia Donaldson, do you have your own library? And do you have your own husband?'"
Although she has written 120 books for various age groups, her superstar is the outwardly ferocious Gruffalo, written in deceptively simple verse with illustrations by Axel Scheffler, which was first published in 1999.
Just 700 words across 32 pages, the tale of an anxious mouse struggling to keep his courage up and a cowardly monster was instantly recognised as a classic, laden with awards, and has now -- taking together The Gruffalo's Child and other related Gruffalo books -- sold more than 10.5m copies, and been translated into languages including Polish, Hebrew, Lithuanian and Russian.
The sequel, The Gruffalo's Child, won a best children's book award in 2005, and the original was voted the best bedtime story of all time by BBC radio listeners in 2009. The Gruffalo has recently sparked a multimillion pound merchandising operation on a scale to rival the other furry marketing Exocet, Paddington Bear.
The jagged-toothed creature is now available as a mug, a doll or a duvet cover, a 30-minute animation with the voices of Robbie Coltrane and James Corden as monster and mouse, and a stage show which has run in London's West End for the past five Christmases and looks likely to become a seasonal fixture.
Donaldson takes on a role that was dreamed up by Ted Hughes, then poet laureate, and his friend Michael Morpurgo, to mark a lifetime's contribution to children's literature and highlight the importance of children's books.
The first laureateship was awarded to the illustrator Quentin Blake in 1999 and Morpurgo himself took on the role in 2003. Previous children's laureates include the creator of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson, and novelist Anne Fine. The winner is presented with a medal and a bursary of £15,000.
The former children's television presenter Floella Benjamin chaired the panel of judges, which included children's book reviewers, lecturers and buyers, and the judges considered nominations from children, who could vote online, and organisations representing libraries, critics and writers.
The Waterstone's children's laureate 2011-2013 is managed by literature charity Booktrust
• This article was amended on 10 June 2011. To clarify: the titles whose sales total more than 10.5m include The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo's Child and other related Gruffalo books (including activity and song books).
