Picture Book #1--The Gruffalo

Title:  The Gruffalo

Author:  Julia Donaldson

Illustrator:  Axel Scheffler

Grade Level Equivalent:  3.2
Lexile Measure:  AD200L

Genre:  Children's Fiction

Subgenre:  Fantasy

Theme:  "David and Goliath" theme--small but smart wins out over large

Primary and Secondary Characters:  the mouse and the Gruffalo

Awards:  Nestle Children's Book Prize--won 1999
Washington Children's Choice Picture Book--nominated 2002
Emhasis on Reading Award--won 2001

Date of Publication:  1999

Publisher:  Penguin Group

ISBN:  0803723865

The Gruffalo is one of my absolute FAVORITE books!  My daughter loved listening to it when she was younger and now that she can read, she loves reading it to her daddy and I. 

The Gruffalo tells the story of a cunning little mouse as he heads through the woods.  Three times he encounters a creatue who would like to make a meal of him and three times he talks his way out of it, saying he is on his way to have lunch with the most fearsome creature in the deep, dark, wood--the Gruffalo!  But upon running into a real gruffalo, the mouse has to talk his way out of becoming the lunch of the creature he thought was imaginary.

This is a great book that young students will love and will definitely have a place in my classroom, if for nothing else than free time or indepedent reading.