> Skip to content
The Shopping Basket
  • Published: 3 August 1993
  • ISBN: 9780099899303
  • Imprint: Red Fox
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 32
  • RRP: $26.00

The Shopping Basket



Tea-time is looming, and Steven is sent out to the corner shop. Along the way he meets several shady characters who are only too willing to lighten Steven's basket by helping themselves to his shopping! Only by his quick wits can Steven outsmart the bullies and save his tea.

Steven is sent out for groceries on to the mean street of the city with only a shopping basket for protection. There are several shady characters about who are offering to lighten the load of the basket by helping themselves to his provisions! Stephen's having none of it and with the help of some of the city's less attractive sights he outsmarts all of them and makes it home in time for tea. With the pictures telling as much of the story as the text, children and adults alike will appreciate the humour and observations from this well known children's author.

  • Published: 3 August 1993
  • ISBN: 9780099899303
  • Imprint: Red Fox
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 32
  • RRP: $26.00

About the author

John Burningham

John Burningham studied illustration and graphic design at the Central School of Art, graduating with distinction in 1959. Many illustration commissions followed including iconic posters for London Transport, before the publication of Borka: the Adventures of a Goose with No Feathers, John’s first book for children (Cape, 1963) which won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration and heralded the beginning of an extraordinary career.

John Burningham has since written and illustrated over thirty picture books, that have been translated and distributed all over the world. These feature his classic and much loved children’s books including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, by Ian Fleming (Jonathan Cape, 1964); Mr Gumpy’s Outing (Jonathan Cape, 1970) also awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal; Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne (Jonathan Cape, 1972); The Shopping Basket (Random House, 1980); The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (Penguin/Puffin, 1983); Granpa (Jonathan Cape, 1984) later made into an animated film and Oi! Get off our Train (Jonathan Cape, 1989) and various books for adults England (Jonathan Cape, 1992); France (Jonathan Cape, 1998); The Time of Your Life (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2002) and When We Were Young (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2004).

John is married to the illustrator, Helen Oxenbury. They have three children, three grandchildren and a dog named Miles. They live in London.

Also by John Burningham

See all

Praise for The Shopping Basket

The language of children is Burningham's

TES

One of the best writers in the business

Financial Times

A classic story

Nursery World