The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson

 

This rhyming story of a mouse and the predators he meets in “the deep dark wood,” shows that even though the mouse is small, he is very clever and saves himself from being eaten.

A mouse walks through the forest and meets a fox, an owl and a snake who all want to eat him.  He tells each of them that he is meeting a creature called a “Gruffalo” who is terribly scary and has claws, tusks, a poisonous wart and purple prickles and that the Gruffalo’s favorite food is a fox, owl and snake respectively.  Each animal is scared by the mouse’s description of the Gruffalo and runs away.  The mouse runs into a Gruffalo, who he thought he had made up.  The mouse convinces the Gruffalo to walk behind him through the forest to prove that the mouse is the scariest animal in the woods.  The Gruffalo follows the mouse and they meet the snake, the owl and the fox.  Each animal sees the Gruffalo and runs away but the mouse tells the Gruffalo that all of the animals are afraid of him.

This is a story which shows that you don’t have to be the biggest or the most dangerous to survive.  The mouse is small and could be eaten by any of the other larger and more powerful creatures but saves himself because he is clever.  This book would be a good fit for any child that is small and possible having a difficult time in school because of it.  The illustrations are very detailed and show lots of creatures, flowers, mushrooms trees rocks and plants.  

- Daphne Cummings