From Book to Film: The Gruffalo

The 1999 children's book The Gruffalo is my five year old son, AJ's, favorite book.  Written by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler, it tells the story of a mouse's walk in the woods.  He encounters several predators, only to get away using his wily prowess.  However, his mouth gets him in more trouble than he realizes. 

This book was very enjoyable, if not possibly a bit gruesome at times.  I was afraid my critic, AJ, would start crying at the thought of our poor hero getting eaten, but he seemed to understand the "Circle of Life" better than his father.  I brought the Lion King comparison into the book after reading it with him and he was fine with it.  He's lost a few pet goldfish already and seen fish, harvested turkey, quail and deer put into the food chain. 

The words and phrasing make The Gruffalo an enjoyable read;  the rhymes and funny sounding words lend itself well to being read aloud.

The book was put into a short movie last year that we managed to catch via DVR on ABC Family channel. My son loved it even more and watched it daily for 2 weeks along with reading it again and again. The film definitely catches the charm of the original and the art style goes way beyond that of the book. 

The book won several awards in England, the prestigious, yet now defunct Nestle Smarties Award, It was the UK's bestselling picture book of 2000, won the 2000 Nottingham/Experian Children's Book award, and the Blue Peter Best Book To Read Aloud award. The audio version won the Best Children's Audio award in the Spoken Book Awards.

The film won a BAFTA and was nominated for an Academy Award.