The Gruffalo

[simbaMummy]

Julia Donaldson leaves me cold Am I the only one? All the mums I know absolutely love her and I really don't, The books are such a pain to read! I really don't know what all the fuss is about...

Caves and the waves and the golden sands, towering icebergs

Axel Scheffler is a lovely man - so encouraging to children, met him at a local event - deffo deserves more credit.

I love Squash and a Squeeze - great words and the song is very catchy.

Not keen on Gruffalo's child, though.

God how can anyone not love the wonderfulness of Julia Donaldson's books? All of them!

My kids are huge fans. As are dh and I.

If you want kids books that are apain to read, look no further than the Mr Men series. They DO leave me cold!

my 2yo loves Gruffalos Child (book and TV) but he wont listen to or watch the Gruffalo.
My 4yo loves 'Tiddler' (as do I) and to a lesser extent, Zog.

We love the gruffalo too ds asks for it nearly every night. Tabby mctat and zog are fab too. The books are so easy to read and are mostly really clever. We Ds was given a set of 5 of her books for xmas and we haven't read anything but those for bedtime since then.

Oh, and let's not forget the point scoring, but ultimately shit to read crapness of Beatrix Potter either.

Oh yes Mr men is painful. Normal ones ok but the Christmas specials are awful. I had to miss a section out of Mr snow when I realised I'd rather claw my own eyes out than read that section again.

They're so turgid and disjointed aren't they?

I love the classic Mr Men but the new ones and Little Misses need binning rapidly. Along with almost all of Thomas the Bloody Tank Engine. I've been reading stories from my Mr Men annual recently which have been a hit.

The Gruffalo got a lot better once ds was old enough to comment on it and predict what came next - ditto Gruffalo Child ('naughty little gruffalo. Shouldn't go out without daddy.') and as he's obsessed with sea creatures, Tiddler was the most exciting thing ever, with a gruffalo fish and all. I must have read it 50 times during the first weekend of potty training, but hey, it worked!

I find Stickman rather sad, though. And the last line of Gruffalo Child doesn't scan, so I change it to 'and the daddy gruffalo snored and snored'

Any books that come off the back of a tv series are piss poor.
Bob the Builder for example, or Peppa Pig. All shite.

snail and the whale and room on the broom are fab

My 2 dc love both the gruffalo and the gruffalos child...repetition is really important for young children learning to read.

We're All Going On a Bear Hunt!

no we're not, put that one back and choose something else

Love Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler books. We have quite a few and DD loves ASAAS and Stickman. She also has CCFB which she enjoys and Tabby McTat which is good, but quite long I think.

Agree on comments on Mr Men. DD loves them and I quite like the originals, but the new ones don't really have any charm IMO.

Dc love them (JD and AS books) and although I'm a bit sick of them I love them too.
They choose and I choose so there's always a bit of variety.
My personal favourite is Tiddler.
Highway Rat was a nice change, but they have not got into it yet. Ds2 too young to get it.

The Elephant and the Bad baby - great book, but oh my god, how many million times did we read it? DS finally forgot about it and DH, when annoyed at me, reminded him of it! I don't think we have ever been nearer divorce. In fact, murder might have been on the cards. I was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cross.

I run a preschool and these books are always requested. We have large format and the children join in with the repetitive phrases and finish the rhymes. I find them all easy to read out loud. Often don't even need to look at words!

I've never really understood the Gruffalo hype, but ds (age 3) absolutely loves it, it's one of the only books he will actually sit still for and listen to. DD (age 5) loves Room on a Broom and recently read a Squash and a Squeeze at school and hasn't stopped talking about it. We have read Stickman but I do agree that it is a bit sad for very small children.

The worst books we own are dd's My Little Pony books

Cave Baby is good as well, we like that one.
Bear Hunt is awful, so hard to read, swishy swashy swishy swashy in the house lock the door up the stairs, it reads like a hastily written shopping list

The Snail and The Whale makes me well up [soppy bugger emoticon]
Monkey Puzzle has grown on me
Zog is rather splendid - I love the stereotype subversion in it!

We deleved into Julia Donaldson for the first time this week, when I introduced DD who is 2 next week to The Snail and The Whale. She absolutely loved it, and gasped upon turning every page. It's even beaten Maisy into second place for bedtime story.
Look forward to collecting the others, I just love the flow of the stories.

DS1 loves the Gruffalo, although I'm utterly bored of it at this point.

I prefer 'Sharing a Shell', 'The Troll' and 'Jack and the FlumFlum Tree'.

I quite like Tiddler (minus the ending). But a lot of them seem rather calculated and pedestrian.

I think 'Tiddler', 'Gruffalo' and 'Room on the Broom' are the best books (in that order). I found the other books really disappointing though. My DDs love watching the 'Gruffalo' on tv but have no time whatsoever for the 'Gruffalo Child'.