Could this be the tail of the big bad mouse? - The Gruffalo's Child (The Gruffalo's Child - Julia Donaldson)

Member Name: kyara

Product:	The Gruffalo's Child - Julia Donaldson
Date:	08/03/09 (26 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great illustrations, can be read over and over, catchy

Disadvantages: not as good as The Gruffalo

For anyone wondering what had become of the Gruffalo since the the last book (The Gruffalo), when this is the book for you! Again writen by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, this sequel focuses on the Gruffalo's young child, and how she goes into the deep, dark woods in search of the big, bad mouse which terrorised her father in the previous book. But what happens when she finds him...?

This book, whilst not as good aqs its predesessor, still provides hours of entertainment for under 5s. It is, like The Gruffalo, written in rhyme and broken up with a mix of large, full page illustrations and smaller half page illustrations, all of which are beautifully drawn by Scheffler, and feature lots of detail and action. You can almost imagine yourself in the cold, windy forest with the Gruffalo's child. The little Gruffalo child is cute and loveable, without a poisonous wart on her nose like her rough father, and the little mouse again shows himself to be a canny individual. The writing is simplistic and easy for children just learning to read, yet it flows beautifully, and carries you along on the journey.

My brother, whom the book was for, was nearly grown out of these books when this was published (in 2004), so he didn't read it as much as he had the original Gruffalo, which is probably why I don't like it as much, but he still got a fair bit of use out of it, and seemed to enjoy it.

All in all, this is a perfect book for young children just learning to read, or for reading to them at night, and no doubt it will become just as much of a classic as its predecessor. An excellent book all round.

Summary: A great book for young children (and the young at heart!)