The Gruffalo

A cocksure mouse goes for a walk down a forest path in broad daylight. Unsurprisingly, given his position on the food chain, he is soon noticed by a range of predators. Luckily for the mouse, the predators don’t follow their natural instincts and gobble him up on the spot. Instead they engage in conversation. This allows the wily mouse an opportunity to escape by creating a mythical creature called The Gruffalo.

During his encounters with a fox, an owl and a snake, the mouse builds a picture of this disgusting, dangerous and gruesome creature by describing various features. He then convinces the predator to run away the same way each time – by telling the animal that it is The Gruffalo’s favourite food.

Feeling pretty good about himself after sending a snake packing, the mouse is shocked to stumble upon… You guessed it, a Gruffalo. What are the odds? Perhaps the mouse had an encounter with a Gruffalo early on in its life that it then supressed, you never really find out how the mouse was able to describe him so vividly. The author, Julia Donaldson, leaves it to your imagination to piece together that part.

The mouse is somewhat perturbed by this development and he is further unsettled by the Gruffalo’s declaration that mouse is his favourite food. However, not one to go down without a fight, the mouse quickly sets about convincing the Gruffalo that he is not one to mess with.

Does the mouse survive? Get the book and find out!

This fantastic book is on high rotation in our house. It is a personal favourite of mine because it is well written, the pictures are engaging for Hannah and it’s easy to do funny voices for each character. I highly recommend putting a copy on your bookshelf.