By Moya Lee

 Author: Julia Donaldson.  Illustrator: Axel Scheffler.  The Gruffalo was first published in  It has sold over 10.5 million copies.  It has been translated into many languages.  It has won several prizes for Children’s Literature.  It is for children between the ages of 3 and 7.  It is about 700 words long.  Why I picked this book: I picked The Gruffalo for my ICT project because it was my favourite book when I was younger. I like this book because of the rhyming and repetition.

 Major Characters: The Mouse and The Gruffalo  Minor Characters: The Owl, The Fox and The Snake

 The Mouse is taking a walk through the woods and he meets three animals, a fox, an owl and a snake. These animals want to eat the mouse.  The Mouse is very clever and he makes up an imaginary scary creature called a Gruffalo.  The Mouse tells the three animals that he is meeting the Gruffalo near by and that the Gruffalo will want to eat them.  The three animals run off and leave the mouse alone.  The Mouse walks further into the wood. Then to his surprise he meets a Gruffalo!  The Gruffalo tells the Mouse ‘You’ll taste good on a slice of bread’  The Mouse tells the Gruffalo that he is a scary mouse and all the animals in the wood are afraid of him.  The Gruffalo walks through the woods behind the Mouse.  They meet the three animals. The animals run away because they are afraid of the Gruffalo, not the Mouse!

 The Gruffalo believes that everyone is afraid of the mouse.  The Mouse tells the Gruffalo that his favourite food is ‘Gruffalo crumble’.  The Gruffalo runs away.

The Mouse The Mouse is one of the main characters in the book. He is very clever and cunning. He uses these skills to trick the Gruffalo and the other three animals. This saves him from the danger of being eaten.

The Gruffalo The Gruffalo is one of the main characters. He is half grizzly bear and half buffalo. He is described in the book as having: terrible tusks and terrible claws, terrible teeth in his terrible jaws. He has knobbly knees and turned out toes, a poisonous wart at the end of his nose. His eyes are orange, his tongue is black and he has purple prickles all over his back.

 The Snake wants to eat the mouse. The mouse describes the Gruffalo to the Snake. He tells him he is meeting the Gruffalo at the Snake’s home by the lake and that his favourite food is Scrambled Snake.  The Owl wants to eat the mouse. The mouse describes the Gruffalo to the Owl. He tells him that he is meeting the Gruffalo at the Owl’s home by the stream that and his favourite food is Owl Ice Cream.

The Fox The Fox wants to eat the Mouse. The Mouse describes the Gruffalo to the Fox. He tells him he is meeting the Gruffalo at the Fox’s home by the rock and that his favourite food is roasted fox.

 The Gruffalo’s Child is the sequel to The Gruffalo. The Gruffalo has told his daughter stories about the Big Bad Mouse who lives in the woods and she goes to find him.

 Both of the books have been made into short films.

 Photos: Google Images  Information: Wikipedia

 I rate this book 10 out of 10 because I love the rhyming and it is a funny book.  I would recommend it to children in playschool and junior and senior infants.