the gruffalo and his child {what we're reading}


I am obsessed with children's books.
I loved books as a child
and have continued to be a book worm.

As a trainee and then a primary teacher
I bought hundreds of children's books for my own collection
which I shared with the children that I taught.
There is nothing like sparking children's imaginations through stories
and story time at the end of the school day was always one of my favourite times.
And now as a mama,
I am just as obsessed with children's books.
Possibly more so.
And it makes me so proud to see my children enjoying books,
to see that spark of imagination in my own babies,
to see the beginnings of their own journeys as potential book worms.


We have always read quite long stories with the beautiful boy.
He would sit down with us, all cuddled up 
to listen to us read The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child by Julia Donaldson
from long before his first birthday.
They were early favourites in this house
and they still are to this day.
They are regularly asked for, often as a pair,
and the little man will spend happy times 
hearing about adventures in the deep dark wood.
He joins in with some sections
and gets excited as he anticipates the turn of the page
and what is going to happen next.
The well loved appearance of these two books
is a testament to just how much we enjoy them.


The characters in The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child 
have captured the little guys imagination entirely.
Footprints in the snow were met with "Ah ha, oh ho" this past winter,
any snake, fox, owl or mouse we see at the zoo is from the "grussalo"
and we went on a magical trip to meet the Gruffalo earlier this year
which the little man still talks about regularly.
I love the fact that it's a story which proves that brain is better than brawn
and that being big and scary doesn't win, being smart does.


Just like when I was working as a teacher,
story time at the end of the day remains one of my favourite times in the day.
Snuggling with my two babies in their PJs
and getting lost in a book makes me feel so proud.
And the beautiful girl seems to be following her brother
and will sit happily for a long time listening to stories,
which is a good job really given how many stories her brother would like every bedtime.
She will flit between staring at the pictures on the page
and staring at whoever is reading the story
with a look on her face of complete amazement and adoration.


The lovely Kelle over at Maggie Stone
has started a feature on her blog about the books she and her gorgeous children are enjoying.
And as a fellow children's book obsessive asked her if I could join in.
She said that I could,
so we will be sharing our favourite books every Tuesday.
Maybe we'll inspire you.
Or maybe you'll share some gems with us.
I hope so.

18 comments

  1. Oh, we love these books too! My grandma bought Elle and Mia the whole set, including room on the broom which they love too! x

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    1. Room on the Broom is another favourite here too. x

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  2. Rachel (Kingston Mummy)July 02, 2013 12:14 pm

    Great idea! Like you I am completely obsessed with books and I'm so pleased that I've passed this on to my son, he adores reading and our shelves are straining under the weight of our book collection! x

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    1. Haha. I have to rotate my book collection as they won't all fit on the bookshelf. Nothing better than a little bookworm though. x

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  3. I might have to join in with Kelle's series from time to time as we are huge book fans too as you know. We are only recent converts to The Gruffalo after wondering what the fuss was about after seeing friends, BB included, raving about it. And we love it, it is so cute, well written and Mads just adores it. Definitely need to try the others. x

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    1. They are such great books. Maybe I'll bring some of my epic collection away at the weekend and you can have a look at them and see which ones are good. x

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    2. Yes Katie you should join in too!! xx

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  4. We love anything by Donaldson :o) these are favs on our book shelves too! Fraser has the board version!!
    If people are showing interest in a few weeks we'll def have to set up a linky!
    Won't help the pennies though haha!! ;) xx

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    1. Yep, Donaldson is queen of bedtime in this house. Definitely our most requested ones are by her. x

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  5. I love children's books. Julia Donaldson is definitely a firm favourite in our house. Such imagination. Our favourite at the moment is the Singing Mermaid. I'll keep an eye out for Kelle's link as we too love to read together :)

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    1. We don't have The Singing Mermaid. It's on our list. x

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  6. I love children's books too. We bought our baby some Julia Donaldson books before she was born (not read them to her yet since she is only 9 weeks). I am looking forward to rediscovering a nd sharing childhood favorites with her as well discovering new ones like the Gruffalo.

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    1. Yes, it's a lovely mixture of enjoying old favourites and learning lots of new ones too. x

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  7. I'm a fellow bookworm so I can never resist adding to the collection. We love the Gruffalo books, and some of the other Julia Donaldsons, but the current favourites are the Anna Kemp/ Sara Ogilvie books ( the worst princess, rhinos don't eat pancakes and dogs don't do ballet) which Kitty happily recites along with us, and spouts out at random times of the day. Oh, and have you seen Jennifer Adams' Baby Lit series - classics turned into baby board books - they're gorgeous, and I think I'm going to need to play along too!

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    1. I shall add those ones to my list to look out for, it's always nice to find some new ones to enjoy.
      And the Baby Lit series is on my list to feature one week as they are amazing. x

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  8. we love these books and have read them sooooo many times and watched the animations of them soooo many times too.i love the prose and the illustrations and they are just a great read. in fact I love all of the Julia Donaldson books we have and i want to get more! they are easy for kids to memorise arent they, due to the ryhming words
    xx

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    1. Yes, us too. I don't think a week goes by without us having to watch one or other of the animations. Julia Donaldson really is brilliant. x

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  9. I think it should be the law that every parent has to read The Gruffalo to their child. It was one of the first books we bought when I was pregnant with Charles, and my husband used to read it "through my tummy". x

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