The Gruffalo's Child

by Julia Donaldson (Author) Axel Scheffler (Illustrator)

The Gruffalo's Child
Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

Julia Donaldson's trademark rhyming text and Axel Scheffler's brilliant, characterful illustrations create this funny and adorable sequel to The Gruffalo.

The Gruffalo's child goes out to find the Big Bad Mouse she has heard so much about.

One night, the Gruffalo's child wanders into the woods to search for the Big Bad Mouse. But instead, she comes upon a small mouse in the woods . . . and decides to eat him!

But wait, what is that? A shadow of a very large, scary creature falls on the ground. Could it be the Big Bad Mouse after all?

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Publishers Weekly

Using a plot line and characters familiar to fans of The Gruffalo, this sequel introduces the appealing Gruffalo's child, a wide-eyed, fuzzy gal with barely budding horns, who goes in search of the mythical Big Bad Mouse. The repetitious tag lines ("Aha! Oho! A trail in the snow!/ Whose is this trail and where does it go?") speed the plot along as the brave Gruffalo's child decides that neither snake nor owl match her father's description of the villain in question. Scheffler's amiable depiction of the baby gruffalo in "the deep dark wood" builds up plenty of empathy for the galumphing youngster, who finally meets the mouse hero of the first Gruffalo tale. From this point on readers' sympathies and understanding of the story's theme may be tugged in more than one direction as the amiable Gruffalo child reveals his monster nature and decides to gobble up the mouse for a midnight treat. Then the clever mouse tricks the baby and sends the frightened Gruffalo child scurrying back to papa, and it's the mouse who follows the footprints ("Aha! Oho!") . They lead him to the cave where the Gruffalo's child, "a bit less brave... [and] a bit less bored," snuggles in the protective arms of her father. Scheffler fills the illustrations with child-friendly images-the mouse's Gruffalo snowman, and the furry female's cave drawings-to make this Gruffalo child seem not very scary at all. Ages 4-up. (Jan.)

Copyright 2004 Publisher’s Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2-In this sequel to The Gruffalo (Dial, 1999), the wide-eyed daughter of that story's title character decides to find the "Big Bad Mouse" that her father has told her so much about. "His eyes are like pools of terrible fire,/and his terrible whiskers are tougher than wire." With her stick doll tucked under her arm, the youngster enters the deep, dark woods and follows marks in the snow to snake, owl, and fox. When she finally finds a little mouse, she grabs him for a feast, but the clever creature tricks her into running away to the comfort of her sleeping father's arms. The full-color cartoons portray a suitably sympathetic child in the snow-filled woods. While children may appreciate the details (the stick doll, snake tracks in the snow, gruffalo child's cave drawings) in the art, lack of change from picture to picture and in perspective diminish its effectiveness. The plot, rhymes, and art are all slightly weaker than the original tale. Purchase this where the first book is popular.

Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Julia Donaldson

Julia Donaldson served as the UK Children's Laureate from 2011 to 2013 and has written many bestselling and beloved children's books, including The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, and Stick Man. She lives in West Sussex in the south of the UK.


Axel Scheffler's award-winning books include Room on the Broom, The Snail and the Whale, and The Gruffalo. His illustrations have been published in more than 30 countries. He lives in London, England.
Classification
-
ISBN-13
9780142407547
Lexile Measure
440
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Puffin Books
Publication date
March 01, 2007
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV019000 - Juvenile Fiction | Humorous Stories
JUV002180 - Juvenile Fiction | Animals | Mice, Hamsters, Guinea Pigs, etc.
JUV037000 - Juvenile Fiction | Fantasy & Magic
Library of Congress categories
-

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