The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo's Child, Charlie Cook's Favourite Book. 25/11/05

‘Where the Gruffalo Roam’

Maurice Sendak’s ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ chilled and thrilled the children of 20 years ago. His wonderfully weird, not-so-scary monsters have evolved and their direct descendent ‘The Gruffalo’ now stalks the imagination of the children of those children. ‘The Gruffalo’ by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler is a modern classic. It is a feel-good adventure story of a quick thinking little mouse who uses his wits to prevail against the multiple dangers of the Deep Dark Wood.
Children’s early literacy is founded on the three ‘R’s; Rhyme, Rhythm and Repetition, and ‘The Gruffalo’ excels as the perfect primer. Not only is there wonderful wordplay with repeated phrases and paraphrases but the structure of the narrative is perfection, the second half being a backwards retelling of the first – with a twist. There is perfect harmony between the rhyming verse and the action in the colourful, playful illustrations. Adults and children will delight in the out-aloud telling of this intelligent tale.
Child readers grow up and have children of their own and with fitting symmetry so do the characters in children’s books. It is six years since the first appearance of the Gruffalo and this Christmas sees the paperback publication of ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’. In a neat inverted retelling of the original, it is the Gruffalo’s child who must navigate the Deep Dark Wood taking care to avoid the mythical Big Bad Mouse. These are moral tales, where in the fight against fear, brain triumphs over brawn. The place where the really wild things are is revealed to be not some distant land, or even the pages of a book, but the imagination of the reader.
There is an expert interplay in Donaldson and Scheffler’s work between word and picture, between idea and the means to convey that idea. This self-referencing is taken to a new height in the brand new offering, ‘Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book’. Again their canvas is the boundless imagination of a child, this time represented by a dozen interconnected mini-stories within the main book. This enables the authors to introduce a varied cast of perennial children’s favourites, including a one-armed pirate, a fire-breathing dragon, little green aliens, and a headless ghost called ‘Underarm Alice’. Into this rogues’ gallery they introduce the notion that we can all enter the stories we read, so making the reading of a story as significant as the writing of it. The clever cyclical twist at the end of Charlie’s favourite book will guarantee children demand the story to be reread to them instantly, time and time again.
Donaldson and Scheffler credit their readers with imagination and intelligence and as a result they create wonderful, skilful books that excite, stimulate and delight. Highly recommended.

This review first appeared in the 'Times & Star' 25th November 2005. The copyright is owned by The Derwent Bookshop.