The Gruffalo Review
Julia Donaldson is our featured author this month for the Virtual Book Club for Kids. We had so much fun using The Gruffalo’s Child to learn about shadows. Our friends at The Gruffalo have sent us some Gruffalo products to review. I’m going to talk about each of the products they sent us and include Amazon affiliate links so you can order the products if you want them. As always, I only share things that I love and truly think you will like, too.
The Gruffalo
The Gruffalo is a story of a smart little mouse. He walks through the woods meeting a fox, an owl, and a snake each of which wants to eat the mouse. The mouse makes up a story of how he is on his way to meet a Gruffalo. The mouse tells each of the animals they are the Gruffalo’s favorite food: roasted fox, owl ice cream, and scrambled snake. Surprisingly the mouse actually runs into his made up Gruffalo. The Gruffalo wants to eat the mouse. The mouse says he’s the scariest creature in the deep dark wood, so the Gruffalo shouldn’t eat him. He takes the Gruffalo back through the woods to meet each of the animals. The animals are terrified of the Gruffalo although the Gruffalo thinks they are terrified of the mouse. The mouse tells the him that his favorite food is Gruffalo crumble. The Gruffalo runs off and the smart little mouse is left alone.
Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler have done a wonderful job with this story. The rhyming text and beautiful illustration make for a delightful read. My son, Aiden, asked to read this book everyday when we first checked it out from the library. He knows the story so well, he can tell it.
The Gruffalo DVD
We were sent The Gruffalo DVD to review. The Gruffalo movie stays true to The Gruffalo book. The animation is well done, and he lines are word for word from the book. The movie really brings to the life the book. You feel like you are in the deep dark wood with the mouse. The movie is only 40 minutes long, which I think is a perfect length for this story.
Check out the trailer for a taste of the movie.
The Gruffalo’s Child DVD
We were also sent The Gruffalo’s Child DVD to review. Read what we thought of the book and check out how we used it to learn about shadows. Aiden much prefers The Gruffalo’s Child over the original Gruffalo story. This is true of the book and the DVD. I think he connects with the child. He likes watching her explore the woods and meeting the different animals along the way.
The Gruffalo’s Child movie is setup up just like The Gruffalo movie. A squirrel narrates the story again. (Helena Bonham Carter is the voice of the squirrel.) The animation and lines are again perfect.
The end of the movie was a little scary for my 3 year old. He was glued to the screen for the entire movie and never said a word. Until the end. He said it was scary. He was worried about the Gruffalo’s child. The music is very dramatic and she screams. The movie did a good job of bringing you into the story. My son had the same reaction to the shadow in the book. Once we talked about it, he was fine.
Check out the trailer to see how adorable this movie is.
You can find out more about Gruffalo products and resources in the following places:
- The Official Gruffalo Website
- The Gruffalo Facebook Page
- Gruffalo World on Pinterest
- Gruffalo World on YouTube
The Gruffalo Giveaway **Closed** The winner is: Kids Creative Chaos ~ Lora (Comment #9)
Disclosure: Amazon links are affiliate links. See disclosure policy for more info.