The Giants and the Joneses

Every giant knows that humans don’t really exist. Almost every giant, anyway . . . When girl giant Jumbeelia collects some real live children, the three Jones children find themselves in BIG trouble.

“so good in so many ways that it’s hard to know where to start… Donaldson’s stroke of genius is Groilish, the giants’ wonderfully onomatopoeic language… this adventure is set to be a giant hit.” – The Herald

Julia says ...

Inspired by my son Alastair, who as a child was an avid collector of anything and everything, this is the story of three human children (or “iggly plops” in giant language) and a girl giant, Jumbeelia, who first collects and then neglects them. Stranded in the land of giants, the Joneses find themselves at the mercy of Jumbeelia’s sadistic brother Zab, and have to draw on all their resources to hatch an escape plan. The book features an invented language, Groilish, and there is a dictionary at the back.

If you’d like to have a go at the the Groilish quiz and worksheet, click groilish.pdf to download it.

The chapter-heading line drawings are by Paul Hess, and the cover picture by Erika Meza.