The Gruffalo - Hardcover

Julia Donaldson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1405004738 ISBN 13: 9781405004732

Publisher: Pan MacMillan, 2003

Synopsis

A rhyming story of a mouse and a monster.

Little mouse goes for a walk in a dangerous forest. To scare off his enemies he invents tales of a fantastical creature called the Gruffalo. SO, imagine his surprise when he meets the REAL Gruffalo...

This wonderful pack comes complete with it`s very own Gruffalo toy!

About this title

About the Author:

Julia Donaldson is one of the UK’s best-loved children’s authors. Her award-winning collaborations with Axel Scheffler include the modern classic The Gruffalo and its irresistible sequel The Gruffalo's Child. Julia also writes children’s plays and songs, and runs regular storytelling workshops. She lives in Glasgow with her husband, Malcolm, and their family.

From Publishers Weekly:

The eponymous character introduced by this British team owes a large debt to Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. When Mouse meets Fox in the "deep dark wood," he invents a story about the gruffalo, described very much like Sendak's fearsome quartet of wild thingsA"He has terrible tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws." The gullible fox runs away when Mouse tells him that the gruffalo's favorite food is roasted fox. "Silly old Fox!" says Mouse, "Doesn't he know?/ There's no such thing as a gruffalo!" Owl and Snake follow suit until, with a turn of the page, Mouse runs into the creature he has imagined. Quick-thinking Mouse then tells the monster, "I'm the scariest creature in this deep dark wood./ Just walk behind me and soon you'll see,/ Everyone for miles is afraid of me." Fox, Owl and Snake appear to be terrified of the tiny mouse, but readers can plainly see the real object of their fears. By story's end, the gruffalo flees, and Mouse enjoys his nut lunch in peace. Despite the derivative plot line, debut author Donaldson manipulates the repetitive language and rhymes to good advantage, supplying her story with plenty of scary-but-not-too-scary moments. Scheffler's gruffalo may seem a goofy hybrid of Max's wild things, but his cartoonlike illustrations build suspense via spot-art previews of the monster's orange eyes, black tongue and purple prickles until the monster's appearance in full. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pan MacMillan
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1405004738
• ISBN 13: 9781405004732
• Binding: Board book
• Illustrator: Axel Scheffler