Charity to launch accessible edition of Gruffalo Granny on publication day

A national charity has revealed that it will release an accessible version of Julia Donaldon’s highly-anticipated new Gruffalo instalment on the same day as its mainstream publication later this month.

Living Paintings, a national charity that creates audio-tactile books and resources for children who are blind or partially sighted, will launch an accessible version of Gruffalo Granny next Thursday (10 September).

The charity described the coinciding launch days as a “landmark moment,” emphasising that “until now, children with visual impairment have always had to wait for specially adapted versions of new picture books to be available.”

Living Paintings has collaborated with Macmillan Children’s Books to ensure Gruffalo Granny is available from its free postal library from its release day.

The Living Paintings adaptation of Gruffalo Granny combines raised tactile illustrations, braille inserts and an exclusive audio guide read by Dame Imelda Staunton.

CEO at Living Paintings, Camilla Oldland, said: “The first new Gruffalo story in more than 20 years is the biggest children’s publishing event of the year, so it was incredibly important that blind children didn’t miss out.”

“Too often, accessible books arrive long after the excitement of a new book has faded. Working together with Macmillan Children’s Books we’ve shown that our audio-tactile books can be available from day one and we’re incredibly grateful to them for making this possible,” she added.

Oldland highligted that she hoped the collaboration would encourage more publishers to make simultaneous book launches standard practice.

Living Paintings trustee, Louis Moorhouse, who has been blind since he was two years old, managed the studio recording of the Living Paintings audio guide.

He said: “Experiencing Living Paintings audio-tactile books as a child was genuinely life-changing. The characters and stories I loved, like The Gruffalo, suddenly became something I could explore for myself. I could run my fingers over the tactile images and build a picture in my mind of the characters and scenes I was hearing about. I’m delighted that a new generation of children can now have that same experience with Gruffalo Granny.”