Over 18 million copies sold · The nation's favourite bedtime story · Ages 3–7
A mouse goes for a walk in the deep dark wood, and everything he meets there would rather like to eat him. The fox invites him to lunch. The owl invites him to tea. The snake invites him to a feast. Each time, the mouse invents a terrifying friend who is just about to arrive — a creature with terrible tusks and terrible claws, and a poisonous wart on the end of his nose.
It is a brilliant bluff, and it works every time. Which is awkward, because the Gruffalo turns out to be real — and he is standing right there, and he is hungry.
Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's modern classic has been read aloud at more bedtimes than almost any other picture book in English. The verse is built to be spoken, the repetition invites children to join in, and the twist at the end rewards the clever mouse rather than the monster. The Observer called it a modern classic; the Sun called it one of the best picture books ever written.
About the creators
Julia Donaldson was UK Children's Laureate from 2011 to 2013 and is the author of some of the best-loved picture books in the world, including Room on the Broom, The Snail and the Whale and What the Ladybird Heard. Axel Scheffler is the German-born illustrator whose warm, detailed artwork has become inseparable from Donaldson's words.
Edition details
- Macmillan Children's Books paperback, 32 pages
- Ages 3 to 7 · perfect for reading aloud
- Redesigned cover edition, published 21 April 2016
Also on our shelves: The Gruffalo's Child and Gruffalo Granny.
