The Gruffalo
A teacher’s look at why this book belongs in the The Why-Askers stage.
Why it fits The Why-Askers (for preschoolers whose every page sparks a question)
A mouse invents a monster - then meets him. The twisting logic delights exactly the age that is learning what bluffing is. Donaldson's verse is the finest read-aloud engineering in the business.
What makes it special
Donaldson's plot is a perfect logical machine: the invented monster becomes real, and the bluff must be re-bluffed. Axel Scheffler's woods are detailed enough to live in, and his Gruffalo is scary in exactly the amount children enjoy. Its rhyming couplets install themselves permanently — ask any parent who can still recite it.
From the publisher
The Gruffalo is a British children's picture book by writer and playwright Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler, that tells the story of a mouse, the protagonist of the book, taking a walk in the woods. The…
About Julia Donaldson
Julia Donaldson was UK Children's Laureate from 2011 to 2013, and in January 2025 became Britain's best-selling author. The Gruffalo had sold over 13.5 million copies by 2019.
She busked with her husband Malcolm during their university holidays, singing outside cafés, and later wrote songs for BBC children's programmes. One of those songs, 'A Squash and a Squeeze', became her first picture book in 1993, when she was 44 — and her first collaboration with illustrator Axel Scheffler.
Also by this author: Room on the Broom · Stick Man · The Snail and the Whale
More from “What If and Why Not”
This book is part of The Best Books for Preschoolers: 30 Teacher Picks (The Why-Askers) in our guide The Best Children’s Books by Age — 120 books chosen by the Montessori-certified teachers at Creative Minds Montessori in Frisco, TX. Come see how we build readers →
Nobody paid for this review — not the author, not the publisher — and the store link above earns us nothing. Our only interest is the reader this book fits.