Monday, November 19, 2012

My favourite children's picture book

My favourite children's book has got to be "The Gruffalo."  Written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, this is such a delight.  I'll tell you why in a while.

First I have got to tell you who sent this book to us.  Shyam surprised Puttachi and me with these books, sent through the post from the UK.  Three books by Julia Donaldson, and one Activity book.  And me, she sent me... cough, books on learning Japanese.  She knew that I was trying my hand at learning the language, and she sent me some.  A perfect surprise, and totally sweet.

Okay, now about the book.  Written in verse, it is a delightful story of a little mouse who invents a monstrous Gruffalo to scare away predators, and then meets the very Gruffalo of his own imagination. 

The story is adorable.
It is lovely to read aloud - this is one of the very few books I really enjoy reading out aloud to Puttachi.  Such a lovely cadence to it!
And the illustrations - they take you right into the pages of the book.  So bright, so rich!

The two other books, "A Squash and a Squeeze" and "Monkey Puzzle" again by the same author-illustrator team are also absolutely delightful.  The first one has a hidden message too, and the second is perfect for little children who love to laugh when people make a funny mistake.

Puttachi loves all the books, and lately she has been sitting with them and trying to read them herself.  The Gruffalo unsettles her a little.   She wants to see the picture of the Gruffalo, she is so drawn to it, but yet she wants to grasp my wrist while she peeks at it.  Heh heh.. but seriously it is a very cute and yet scary monster.  Hats off to the illustrator who has achieved that effect!

I have not seen it in bookstores here, but it is available on Flipkart

Shyam, thank you for hours and hours of enjoyment with the books!

Which is your/your child's favourite picture book!  Let us know!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for introducing the book !
I enjoyed reading it.
Neela

Anonymous said...

I meant hearing the story on Youtube ...!
Neela

rajk said...

This book is on my wishlist now. As for my favourite, my toddler loves to read anything by Mo Willems - the Elephant and PIggie series and the Pigeon series. It is something even adults can enjoy.
I strongly recommend Mr.Willems!N

Shammi said...

Wow - I dropped by your blog today, was happy to see a new post... and wow, I certainly wasn't expecting such a lovely note of thanks, Shruthi :) It was absolutely my pleasure to send you & Puttachi the books. It's such fun when you successfully match books to people :) Especially little people!

Sudhakar said...

After reading your blog post, I ordered "Gruffalo" on flipkart and my son is enjoying the story. Thanks and I'm looking forward for more suggestion from you on children books.

Shruthi said...

Neela, glad you enjoyed it!

RajK, thanks, will look out for it! :)

Shyam, :))

Sudhakar, I'm so happy you could get to read it and that your child is enjoying it! For more recos of children's books, try saffrontree.org

Mahi Kashyap said...

Had fun with the story... Its amazing. Thanks Shruti

Just Another Greg said...

Glad to see someone who agrees that the whole story is playing out in the mouse's imagination just before the fox eats him.

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