Julia Catherine Donaldson is an English writer and playwright, best known for her popular rhyming stories for children, especially those illustrated by Axel Scheffler. Among her celebrated works are The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, and Stick Man. She served as the Children's Laureate from 2011 to 2013. Originally a songwriter for children's television, she focused on writing books after her song A Squash and a Squeeze was adapted into a children's book in 1993. Of her 184 published works, 64 are widely available in bookshops, while the remaining 120 are educational materials, including her Songbirds phonic reading scheme, part of the Oxford Reading Tree.

In January 2025, Donaldson became Britain's best-selling author, surpassing J.K. Rowling by some 600,000 sales.