After more than 20 years of roaming dark wood, Gruffalo returns to a new book, author Julia Donaldson said she was stimulated by a movement to reverse the decline in children's reading.

The book will be published in 2026 and will be the third book of Beloved Animals – then the best-selling original in 1999 and the 2004 sequel, Gruffalo's Children.

Donaldson said she had an idea “long ago” but was inspired to end up submitting the pen to paper after the National Literacy Trust (NLT) started using the early word “problem” program of the first two books.

According to NLT, only 35% of children aged eight to 18 say they like to read in their free time in 2024.

This is the lowest level since charities began collecting data in 2005.

Some people who have the original books read to them, because young children will now be able to read new stories to their own children.

The first picture book sees a modest mouse encountering a fox, a snake and an owl in dark dark wood - a furry monster that deceives Grafalo itself to fear it.

Then in Gruffalo's children, the character's descendants go to search for "big, bad rats."

"Writing a sequel is always a challenge," Donaldson said in a statement. "It has been five years since Gruffalo's publication and Gruffalo's children, and now Gruffalo's children will be over 20 years old between Gruffalo's children and the third book.

“I actually had the basic idea of ​​this story a long time ago, but I couldn’t think of how to go.

"Only when I was impressed with NLT I was thrilled to take my thoughts out of the cupboard once and for all, if I could turn it into a very satisfying story. To my surprise, I managed to do it!"

She said she felt "happy" when illustrator Axel Scheffler returned to the boat. She added: “I really hope that kids – and adults will also like this new story because I know what reading ability to share is.”

Publisher Macmillan Children's Books calls the new book "a fresh and exciting adventure with all the logos of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's classics".

Macmillan said 18 million copies have been sold for the first two books.

"Reading and sharing stories is crucial to shaping children's early speech and language development," said NLT CEO Jonathan Douglas.

Due to the publication of two major Gruffalo books, there are derivative and animated versions of both, the first of which was an Oscar-nominated.

Donaldson wrote a total of 200 books and told the BBC that Gruffalo had such an impact was "amazing", but she thought it was "too much attention".