The Gruffalo

When choosing a book to read to a group of young children, the list of possibilities seems almost endless. From classic authors with their timeless stories, like Jill Murphy and A.A Milne’s to contemporary books such as those from Claire Freedman and Lauren Child. You can choose from humour, poetry, fantasy and so much more. We have chosen a text by Julia Donaldson, called ‘The Gruffalo’. Her books encapsulate a variety of styles – she uses poetry, song, humour and pictures to make the stories exciting and appealing to any audience.

The Gruffalo is a popular book, to say the least. Having received much recognition over the years including Blue Peters ‘Best Book to Read Aloud’ the story is one that a large amount of children will already recognise and be familiar with. This can benefit its use in the classroom as it can increase the children’s participation with the story and subsequently their attention levels within the session. Written in 1999 it is around 700 words long and aimed at children between three and seven, perfect for a Year One audience.

The pictures throughout the book are eye-catching and engaging, keeping the children’s interest as the story is told, as well as making it distinguishable on any book shelf. In fact, the partnership of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (the books illustrator) is the most successful author / illustrator partnership in the picture book world. The characters and settings created by Donaldson’s words and Scheffler’s images are simple and familiar, with the exception of course of The Gruffalo himself. The Owl, fox, mouse and snake are creatures children are very likely to have seen and heard about through various forms, tv, games and other books, prior to hearing this particular story in the classroom setting.

Julia Donaldson turned to writing stories once one of her songs ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’ was made into a children’s picture book. It is from this background in song writing that the rhyming and repetition...