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
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
1 Comments:
I agree that the story is a bit contrived and it seems to try hard to get all the characters from the original book in, making it seem longer.
The story would not be nearly so enjoyable if the children did not know the orginal book, but the text and pictures are excellent and it's still a good read.
My children love it.
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