The Gruffalo's Child by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler

The Gruffalo's Child is the sequel to one of my favorite children's books The Gruffalo, though as I began this review I realized I had never really written a review of the first book, plus I had left the book of my best of 2004 list where it clearly belonged near the top. When I saw that Julia Donaldson had written a sequel, I was both excited and nervous. The Gruffalo is such a perfect book; a fantastic blending of story, language, and artwork.

So the quick question, is The Gruffalo's Child as good as The Gruffalo? No, but its really really close. The rhyming flow of language is fantastic and Scheffler's artwork is probably even a little better since the previous book. My only complaint, and it is a nitpicky complaint---the story seems a little contrived. In the original book, the mouse was trying to get out of a jam by telling a story about a horrible monster; but in the sequel the Gruffalo's child actually goes out in search of trouble. It still works as a story, just not as smoothly as before. Will I still use this book for read alouds? Most definitely, because it is still better than 90% of the other picture books out there.

Keywords: Monsters, Adventure, Rhyming, Outdoors, Animals, Problem Solving

Ages: 4-8

Powell's Books - The Gruffalo's Child by Julia Donaldson

Mudball by Matt Tavares

Mudball is a great story for any kids that you know that are baseball nuts. It is also a great story for anyone who has been picked on for not being good enough or big enough to do something. This is the true story of Andy Oyler, a minor league baseball player, who in 1903 hit the world's shortest homerun ever. Its a fun story and the beautiful artwork of Matt Tavares captures the rainy day dreariness and confusion of the players perfectly.

Keywords: Baseball, History, Sports, Underdogs

Ages: 7 and up