A rhyming story of a mouse and a monster. Little mouse goes for a walk in a dangerous forest. To scare off his enemies, he invents tales of a fantastical creature called the Gruffalo. Imagine his surprise when he meets the real Gruffalo!

A mouse took a stroll in the deep, dark wood...To scare off his enemies he invents tales of a fantastical creature called the Gruffalo. So, imagine his surprise when he meets the REAL Gruffalo! A new generation of very young readers can now discover the Gruffalo in this toddler-friendly board book version of the best-selling picture book, winner of the Smarties Book Prize Gold Award. With larger type and a handy-sized format, even the tiniest children will fall in love with the knobbly-kneed, black-tongued, purple-prickled Gruffalo.

This is a marvellous, entertaining story which brilliantly demonstrates how humour and metaphor can be so effective in communicating important messages. During a walk through the dark woods a little mouse frightens off various predators by pretending to be on the way to meet a gruffalo. This fearsome beast has awesome features - terrible tusks and teeth, orange eyes, purple prickles, warts and knobbly knees - and its favourite food is, variously, roasted fox, owl ice cream or scrambled snake. Of course, it exists only in the mouse's imagination - or does it? In a neat twist, when the mouse actually meets a gruffalo (whose favourite food is really mouse sandwiches), it cleverly uses the other predators to convince the creature that a mouse is pretty scary, and its favourite food is...gruffalo crumble. Result: one fleeing gruffalo; one contented mouse safe to walk in the woods. A brilliant, funny book, written in flowing rhyme and imaginatively illustrated, well-deserving of its 1999 Smarties Gold Award. (Kirkus UK)