In what is described as “a modern classic” a unique tale unfolds. The Gruffalo, a cave-dwelling monster-father, tells his daughter not to go into the woods. She asks “why not” and he proceeds to tell a tale of The Big Bad Mouse whose ferocious muscles, eyes and whiskers he’d seen long ago. While the father sleeps, the naturally-curious child sets foot into the woods to find the terrifying mouse. Based on her father’s descriptions, she comes to various animals that could be The Big Bad Mouse but never are. Finally, she spots a small mouse, so small she plans to eat him but who outwits her.
Two things make this book highly entertaining for kids: the illustrations, which include the lovably-humorous Gruffalos’ furry bodies, round yellow eyes and harmless fangs (and the most colorful drawings of the “deep dark woods” I have ever seen). Plus, the book’s flowing meter, evidenced as follows:
“Out came the moon. It was bright and round.
A terrible shadow fell onto the ground.”
The sing-song meter will make it easy for toddlers to follow and fun for older children to mimic. In short, here is a book parents might see as cliché but children will adore – the proof is in my rote reading of it to my toddler whose eyes lit up at every corner.
