The Gruffalo

Publisher and industry reviews

UK Kirkus review

This is a marvellous, entertaining story which brilliantly demonstrates how humour and metaphor can be so effective in communicating important messages. During a walk through the dark woods a little mouse frightens off various predators by pretending to be on the way to meet a gruffalo. This fearsome beast has awesome features - terrible tusks and teeth, orange eyes, purple prickles, warts and knobbly knees - and its favourite food is, variously, roasted fox, owl ice cream or scrambled snake. Of course, it exists only in the mouse's imagination - or does it? In a neat twist, when the mouse actually meets a gruffalo (whose favourite food is really mouse sandwiches), it cleverly uses the other predators to convince the creature that a mouse is pretty scary, and its favourite food is...gruffalo crumble. Result: one fleeing gruffalo; one contented mouse safe to walk in the woods. A brilliant, funny book, written in flowing rhyme and imaginatively illustrated, well-deserving of its 1999 Smarties Gold Award. (Kirkus UK)