''The Gruffalo's Child'' is a British

children's A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

by writer and playwright

Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson (born Julia Catherine Shields; born ) is an English writer and playwright, and the 2011–2013 Children's Laureate. She is best known for her popular rhyming stories for children, especially those illustrated by Axel Scheffler, ...

, and illustrated by

Axel Scheffler Axel Scheffler (born ) is a German illustrator and animator based in London. He is best known for his cartoon-like pictures for children's books, in particular ''The Gruffalo'' and ''The Gruffalo's Child'', written by Julia Donaldson. He has ...

. It is the bestselling sequel to ''

The Gruffalo ''The Gruffalo'' is a British children's picture book by author Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. Its tells the story of a mouse taking a walk in the woods and deceiving different predators, including the Gruffalo. ''The Gruf ...

''.

Plot

The story is about the Gruffalo's daughter who, despite her father's warning, sets off into the deep dark wood to find the "big bad mouse", the only thing her father is afraid of. The Gruffalo can not remember what he looks like and describes him as a monster. During her winter journey, she encounters the tracks of the snake, the owl, and the fox from ''the previous story'', each of whom she first suspects to be the "big bad mouse", but who in turn tell her where she can find the real "big bad mouse". Eventually, concluding she has been tricked by the animals (and perhaps her father), she sadly decides that she "doesn't believe in the 'big bad mouse". At this point, she encounters the little mouse from ''The Gruffalo'', who previously tricked her father and who her father and the animals were talking about. When she threatens to eat him, he cunningly invites her to meet the "big bad mouse", which he re-creates by using moonlight to project a tremendously enlarged and fearsome shadow to scare her away. Believing the shadow to belong to the real "big bad mouse", the Gruffalo's child flees and returns to the Gruffalo cave with faith in her father restored. The story repeats the "brains over brawn" theme, the creatures, and the easily flowing rhyme scheme (

tetrameter In poetry, a tetrameter is a line of four metrical feet. The particular foot can vary, as follows: * ''Anapestic tetrameter:'' ** "And the ''sheen'' of their ''spears'' was like ''stars'' on the ''sea''" (Lord Byron, "The Destruction of Sennacher ...

) of its predecessor, ''The Gruffalo''.

Adaptations

The book was adapted for the stage by Tall Stories Theatre Company in 2005, and has toured around the United Kingdom and the rest of the world since then. The mouse's shadow appearing enlarged is not something that would occur in the real world

References

2004 children's books British children's books British picture books Fantasy books Sequel books Children's books adapted into films Books about mice and rats Books about foxes Fictional owls Fictional snakes Fiction about monsters Books about families Forests in fiction Donaldson and Scheffler {{child-picture-book-stub