Clever Mouse and Gruffalo: A Chinese Folk Tale Retold
The Clever Mouse and the Gruffalo
To dissuade further advances, he tells each animal that he has plans to dine with his friend, a gruffalo, a monster-like hybrid that’s half grizzly bear and half buffalo, whose favorite food happens to be the relevant animal, and describes the features of the gruffalo’s monstrous anatomy. Frightened that the gruffalo might eat it, each animal flees. Knowing the gruffalo to be fictional, the mouse gloats thus:
“Silly old fox/owl/snake, doesn’t he know?
There’s no such thing as a gruffalo!”
After getting rid of the last animal, the mouse is shocked to encounter a real gruffalo – with all the frightening features the mouse thought that he was inventing. The gruffalo threatens to eat the mouse, but again the mouse is cunning: he tells the gruffalo that he, the mouse, is the scariest animal in the forest. Laughing, the gruffalo agrees to follow the mouse as he demonstrates how feared he is. The two walk through the forest, encountering in turn the animals that had earlier menaced the mouse. Each is terrified by the sight of the pair and runs off – and each time the gruffalo becomes more impressed with the mouse’s apparent toughness. Exploiting this, the mouse threatens to eat the gruffalo, which flees.
The story is based on a Chinese folk tale of a fox that borrows the terror of a tiger. Donaldson was unable to think of rhymes for “tiger” so instead she invented a word that rhymes with “know”.
Other Beloved Children’s Books
- Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle
The book itself has little to no plot. Instead, the narrator asks various animals what they see with the response usually being another animal, the respondent is then asked what they themselves see, and the process is repeated. It features a Brown Bear, Red Bird, Yellow Duck, Blue Horse, Green Frog, Purple Cat, White Dog, Black Sheep, a Goldfish, a Teacher or a Mother, and Students or Children. The 1984 British edition of the book substitutes a monkey for the teacher. Carle explained that variations in text between editions (mostly on the last page) were due to Martin, and that he made new illustrations to go with the changes.
- We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt entire board fills the book with the imaginative story about a family on the hunt for a bear. This cover-to-cover picture book alternates (starting with the cover) to spread from color to black-and-white spread until the climax – when the family who finds the bear they have been looking for and the transitions from contemporary fiction genre to fantasy. (Up until the bear scene, events they are all plausible however, the idea to an entire family that could outrun a bear is quite unbelievable.) Throughout the journey to find the bear and the race back home the father is leading the bunch – and implicit metaphor for the type of relationship parents have children… With their children do not have a choice but to follow their parents, inevitably mold who their children’s personalities.
- Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley
Ed Emberley has created an ingenious way for children to chase away their nighttime fears. Kids can turn the pages of this die-cut book and watch the Big Green Monster grow. Then, when they’re ready to show him who’s in charge, they’ll turn the remaining pages and watch him disappear! This lavish reissue features dramatic die-cut eyes and sparkling foil on the cover.