This is a truly lovely story. A mouse invents a monster to scare off other animals who want to eat him, but then has to think quickly to save himself from being eaten by that very monster! Axel Scheffler's illustrations are beautifully detailed and the creatures in the book have character and detail. The sounds do add to the story and they are high quality - each of them is clear and distinct. The gruffalo's growl is especially realistic - be warned if your child scares easily! There are pictures in the text to show when to press them. Doing all the sounds makes this a very long read, as each sound has to play fully before you can do the next one, but if you have the time it is lovely to share together. The sounds buttons can be managed by little hands but sometimes the need a bit of adult pressure. A really enjoyable story!