An Early Christmas Present Idea! (The Gruffalo's Child - Julia Donaldson)

Member Name: DavyMichelle

Product:	The Gruffalo's Child - Julia Donaldson
Date:	27/10/09 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lovely Illustrations, Nicely Flowing Text

Disadvantages: Not Quite as Good as the Original

The Gruffalo's Child is a sequel to the popular Julia Donaldson book The Gruffalo. We got our copy as part of a special value pack of children's picture books from Bananas.co.uk, though Amazon have it available individually at the reasonable price of £3.30. The story is best understood by a child who is already familiar with the first book The Gruffalo. I think that if a child is already aware of the characters, they can concentrate on the story better and understand the gentle humour easier.

In The Gruffalo's Child, the Gruffalo has a child who goes out wandering in the woods late one night while the Gruffalo is sleeping. The Gruffalo has told their child all about the big bad mouse who lives in the woods, and warned the child against venturing out in them alone. The child doesn't believe in such a thing as a big bad mouse, so goes off into the woods one night alone.

Of course there is indeed such a thing as a big bad mouse, and the Gruffalo's child is warned as much by a variety of animals that he meets in the woods on his journey through them. He insists he isn't scared, and tells the big bad mouse that to it's face when he finally comes face to face with it. He remains not scared right up until the mouse manages to trick him into believing his over-sized shadow is the real danger to be afraid of, and the Gruffalo's child flees in fear!

I like the subtle humour that the writer's used to tell this little story, though I do think that most little children will need the big joke explained to them. But then I thought that about the original book, The Gruffalo. Children will still find humour in the funny little lines like "but I'm not scared" as we adults adopt silly over-the-top voices with which to read them.

I like the rhyming techniques used to tell the story most of all. I find that the grandson finds this a really soothing and calming style to listen to as a bed time story. It also helps to open up children's minds to having an imagination and accepting concepts created by strings of words, rather than taking words literally as they do when they hear stories in a more standard format.

Finally, I especially like the illustrations in this book and find that the grandson is enthralled by them. There's something really perfect about every picture in this book, right down to great colour choices and attention to detail on all of the animal's coats and skins. Of course, this is because The Gruffalo's Child has been illustrated by the famous Axel Scheffler of course!

As this book features a winter theme, with the forest drenched in snow, this book would be a great choice for Christmas. It's suitable for children from about three years of age right up to eight or nine years old. I don't rate it quite as highly as I do The Gruffalo, but it still gets a well deserved four stars from me.

Summary: Highly Recommended