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‘The Gruffalo': The cult children's classic turns 25
Summary
First published in 1999 by Macmillan, ‘The Gruffalo’ has become an integral part of parenting journeys across the worldOne night—it must have been early 2015—I woke up to the sound of gruff laughter followed by the croaking of a frog and the rustling of leaves. In a rare moment of courage, I decided to find the source of the sound before going into hysterics. To my relief, I found my daughter, just nearing 3 years of age at the time, perched on a set of cushions with The Gruffalo sound book. She was cheerily pressing each of the eight sound buttons—featuring the squeak of a mouse, the hiss of a snake, the cackle of the fox, the gruff laughter of the monster—while turning the pages of this classic story by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. The book would go with us everywhere—to playschool, play dates, and restaurants, where the sudden press of the laughter button would startle people at the neighbouring table into spilling soup.
Many books became precious during my daughter’s early childhood, from Judith Kerr’sThe Mog series andThe Tiger Who Came to Tea, to Donaldson’s vibrant other titles such as Zog, The Paper Dolls. However, of these,The Gruffalo, stood out. I associate the book with key memories of my early parenting days. First published in 1999 by Macmillan, it is a favourite with kids and parents and is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Translated into 107 dialects and languages, with 13.5 million copies sold worldwide, it has been interpreted as a stage show and an animated film.
Set in the dark woods, it follows a mouse who encounters a fox, an owl and a snake.The courageous little creature foils all their attempts at turning him into a meal by cooking up a story of going to dine with a fictitious frightening monster, the gruffalo. However, as he ventures deeper into the forest, the mouse is shocked to find that the gruffalo is very much real. Keeping his wits about, he manages to keep not just the predators but also the gruffalo at bay. The rhyming scheme and inherent drama is a hat tip to Donaldson’s training in drama at the University of Bristol and skill as a storyteller.
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To me, the book marks the moment of moving from board books and picture books to The Gruffalo, the first full-fledged storybook to be added to my daughter’s collection. The book led to the establishing of a regular nighttime reading ritual, with the child demanding the story to be read out daily for months altogether. I could recite the lines, Hehas terrible tusks and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws… here by the rocks and his favourite food is terrible fox, in my sleep.
Soon, we built up a little Gruffalo collection, with sticker books, flap books, push pull and slide books, touch and feel books, the sequel The Gruffalo’s Child—you get the drift. Armed withThe Gruffalo books, I dared to take her out for meals and outings, just the two of us. At cafes, on some afternoons, you would find me enacting out the mouse, the fox and the gruffalo with abandon to her, with the child clapping her hands with joy and other people looking at me agog.
As my daughter’s social circle expanded, we had events around it—animated readings, themed playdates and many viewings of plays based on the book. The Gruffalo not just enriched her life with its beautiful rhyming scheme, inherent drama, and scope for imaginative role play but also appealed to my friends—other parents joined this group of storytellers and readers. The Gruffalo will always remain special for starting us on this path of shared reading and storytelling.
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