AIBU to ask why The Gruffalo is so very popular?

[octaviarose]

I don't really understand why the Gruffalo is so very popular as a children's book, please someone explain the enormous appeal.

[Climbingpenguin]

I HATE the very hungry caterpillar and don't get why that is such a classic

[marquesas]

Gwendoline and Climbingpenguin - I'm so glad I'm not alone

To whoever asked if I'd read it out loud - are you joking? People don't read it for their own pleasure do they

[WineGless]

I can't choose a JD favorite but love all the above. I've cried at most of the endings!

[SirBoobAlot]

Jack And the Flumflum Tree currently at the top here.

We have the Gruffalo sound book, the frog noise makes me giggle every time. It sounds very dirty

[whattodoo]

Stick Man, What The Ladybird Heard, and the new one - Superworm.

We love hunting for all the characters hidden in Axel Schiffler's illustrations.

We also give JD books as gifts, you can't get it wrong!

[MousyMouse]

I HATE the very hungry caterpillar and don't get why that is such a classic maybe because it works much better in other languagues?

[GobHoblin]

Gruffalo is DD's yr1 topic this term, so we are revisiting big style! (and i'm loving it) Also adore What the ladybird heard and Stickman is her fave. I just love doing the voices!!

[Plomino]

All my lot loved the Gruffalo . DD1 particularly loved the fact that the smallest creature was the cleverest of all. (Something she noticed by herself, being the smallest in our house )

Last Friday for children in need , DS1 decided to hire a Gruffalo costume and go and meet DS4 and DD1 from school . It was like watching the Pied Piper of Hamlyn , as he rapidly gained an entourage and ended up having his picture taken with about 30 kids . Madness !

[Bunnyjo]

I love Julia Donaldson!

My top 3 would be

1. Room on the Broom
   
2. Zog
   
3. The Smartest Giant in Town
   

And I'm another one who doesn't love the Hungry Caterpillar.

[ArtfulAardvark]

We loved it and also had a lot of fun doing "voices" when reading room on the broom, the boys also loved Monkey Puzzle.

I think Julia Donaldson's books will be a similar cosy childhood memory for the children in the way the Dr Seuss books are for me.

I dont get the hungry caterpiller at all either.

We always liked the Lynley Dodd - Hairy McLary books though.

[nokidshere]

Oh we loved them all - but The Gruffalo, Stickman and Snail and the whale were particular favourites.

They are all still here on our bookshelves along with my very fave book called "where oh where is bedtime bear" from ELC 15 years ago - very sad that my children have grown out of them lol - The Hunger Games doesn't have the same sweetness about them

[edam]

Love the Gruffalo and the Snail and the Whale for all the reasons already mentioned about rhyme and language development and all that jazz but mainly because they are just charming and happy.

The Hungry Caterpillar - repetition, and the humour for a small child in something little being able to gnaw away at stuff much bigger than itself, and being able to eat all sorts of different types of food including stuff that children only get in very small qualities, like giant lollipops (or something like that, don't have a copy to hand). The juxtaposition is just mad. And that's one of the basic building blocks of humour, putting things that don't fit together next to each other in a surprising manner. (Doesn't sound very funny, put like that, but inappropriateness is a common factor in jokes, verbal and visual.)

[HoldMeCloserTonyDanza]

Zog all the way!

Don't rescue me, I won't go back to being a princess
And prancing round the palace in a silly frilly dress.
I want to be a doctor, and travel here and there
Listening to people's chests and giving them my care

It is all lost on Disney-princess-mad DD though I'll brainwash her yet!

Snail and the whale sounds great, I'll have to get that.

[HoldMeCloserTonyDanza]

Our copy of the Very Hungry Caterpillar is all sticky from DD licking all the pictures of food

[Fakebook]

The Gruffalo is great! It's a really clever little book with rhyming and allows children to join in with the reading due to the repitition. We gave dd the Gruffalo and the Gruffalo's child for her birthday 2 years ago and she loves both book even now.
She also loves tiddler the story telling fish. Very fun and easy to understand and children can join in.

[Selim]

When my big dcs read to the tiny ones they always choose a JD book. I don't get the hungary caterpillar either.

[Clary]

Ah we loved The Gruffalo also Snail and the Whale and Room on the Broom and Tiddler (spot the gruffalo fish!).

For me the appeal was the wonderful rhyming and rhythmic text; also the way the underdog/small person so often triumphs/wins the day through being clever; the pictrues are brilliant too.

I just love the way Tiddler's story helps him - "I was lost, I was scared, but a story led me home again..."

The children used to love the stories and the repetition etc. I loved them because they were not maddening like Dig Dig Digging or That's not my....

I was really sad when the (old) age of my children meant I really could not justify buying Stick Man or Tabby McTat. Read DS2's best mate's brother's copies tho!

[StElmo]

The Gruffalo is brilliant! Though, not as good as Tabby McTat and room on the broom.

[yawningmonster]

We are huge JD fans in this house but Gruffalo is definately not the favourite..
We started with
Sharing a Shell
DS's favourite has been The Troll
DD is just moving on from Chocolate Mouse for Greedy Goose, One Mole Digging a Hole and Hippo Has a Hat and seems to be quite taken with
Princess and the Wizard

[Ozziegirly]

DS (2) loves Stick Man and my god I must have read it a thousand times. I love Snail and the Whale but sadly he isn't so keen (yet). I also had to stop to compose myself the first time I read it; "I must not fail".

We have an author over here (Australia) who is incredibly popular, Pamela Allen, and my DS absolutely adores her books, along with Hairy Mclairy, which I also like.

[CaptainBarnaclesDaddyman]

You have to do special voices for all the characters in JD books to make them work properly.

My gruffalo is Ray Winston, and the man and woman in A Squash and a Squeeze are the Queen and Philip

[YouSeveredHead]

In our house I'd like to think its the amazing violets I do