Author and illustrator

Julia Donaldson is an author of children's books, the most famous of which being The Gruffalo.^[1] Before writing The Gruffalo, Donaldson had a background in drama and performance.^[2] She studied drama at the University of Bristol and then busked in Europe and the United States.^[1] She began her career as a writer by writing children's songs for television programmes. In 1993, one of her songs that she sang and performed with her husband—"A Squash and Squeeze", about an elderly lady with a small house^[3]—was turned into a book, published by Methuen and illustrated by Axel Scheffler.^[4][5] Scheffler was born and grew up in Germany before moving to the UK to study art. He first worked with Donaldson on A Squash and Squeeze, published in 1993.^[3]

Creating the book

In an interview in the book The Way We Write (2006), Donaldson writes that although "It can take months or years for the germination of a book ... writing The Gruffalo probably took two weeks, with all the rewriting".^[6] She said that writing the second half of the book was difficult and almost forced her to stop altogether.^[7] Donaldson said that she had admired Scheffler's illustrations for A Squash and Squeeze, and when her publisher did not suggest he would also be illustrating The Gruffalo, she sent him the text of the book herself. Scheffler showed the text to Macmillan, who were his publisher at the time and subsequently published the book.^[8]

Humour

In an article titled "Humour and the locus of control in 'The Gruffalo'", Betsie van der Westhuizen identifies the following types of humour used in The Gruffalo: "humour with regard to the narrative aspects, humour with regard to the poetic aspects, visual humour and humour and the performing arts".^[10] She writes that the most common use of humour in the story is incongruity, arising from the sense that "everything is not as it should be".^[11] Some examples include the mouse averting the predators and the unusual descriptions of food, such as "owl ice cream" and "scrambled snake".^[12] She writes that there are different experiences of humour among different ages of children who read The Gruffalo: three to five year olds will appreciate the elements of surprise and repetition in the story; six to eight year olds will enjoy the rhyme and rhythm of the text and the story's hyperbole.^[10] As for visual representations of humour, van der Westhuizen writes that an example occurs when the mouse scares away the snake, accompanied by fragmented images of the imaginary gruffalo's features, then immediately afterwards comes across the real Gruffalo.^[13]

Mice often feature as the main character in stories for children, and one key characteristic of the animal in this context is humour.^[14][10] Both Ghassan Fadhil Radhi and van der Westhuizen write that children relate to the character of the mouse who triumphs in difficult situations, along with the humour that is a key element of many mouse stories.^[10][14]

Chinese folk tale

Donaldson has said that the story of The Gruffalo was inspired by a Chinese folk tale known as "The Fox that Borrows the Terror of a Tiger"^[15][16] (狐假虎威^[17]).The folk tale is about a hungry tiger who tries to catch a fox. The fox is clever and tells the tiger that God has made the fox king of all animals. Whilst accompanying the fox, the tiger notices that other animals run away in fear. Not realising that they are actually running away from the tiger, the tiger believes that fox is indeed a feared king.^[16] Donaldson was originally going to have the beast in her book be a tiger, but was unable to think of rhymes for "tiger" so instead invented a new word—"gruffalo".^[16]

The Taiwanese translator of The Gruffalo recommended the book for publication in Taiwanese because he noticed the story bore resemblance to the traditional tale. Teachers have used this translated book to demonstrate a modern retelling of the Chinese folk tale. In an article on the traditional Chinese translation of The Gruffalo in Taiwan, Chen-Wei Yu writes that the "resourcefulness" of the mouse in Donaldson's story represents a Western association with "individual autonomy" and "self-achievement", whereas the fox in the original fable is to be looked down upon because it does not accept its correct place in society nor an individual's obligation to others.^[16] This latter interpretation of the story has led the phrase "The Fox that Borrows the Terror of a Tiger" to mean someone who makes use of another person's power for their own gain.^[16]

The Gruffalo

When writing the story, Donaldson did not have an exact vision of what the Gruffalo would look like. She said that she imagined he would be "more weird and less furry" than Scheffler's final illustrations.^[29] She read the story in schools prior to the book being published and invited the children to draw the Gruffalo, which resulted in creatures which she described as looking "more like aliens and less like cuddly animals".^[29] In early sketches for the book, the Gruffalo was depicted as being humanoid, troll-like, and wearing a T-shirt and trousers. The book's editor, Alison Green, said that they instead decided that the Gruffalo would look more like a woodland creature and predator, and Donaldson said the resulting illustration is "more natural looking".^[29][30] Scheffler's depiction of the creature relied on the physical descriptions within the text with along with features which aren't mentioned, such as a pair of bovine horns. He created a version of the character which is cuddly and furry but still scary.^[31] Donaldson describes the Gruffalo's appearance as a "mixture of scary but stupid".^[30] Burke writes that the image of the Gruffalo has become "iconic".^[19]

When the Gruffalo first appears in the story, he takes up a large part of the visual space on the page with strong, contrasting colours.^[32] He appears menacing with his arms raised in an attack stance, claws extended, and a drooling tongue.^[25] The mouse in comparison looks threatened,^[32] but the humorous grin of the Gruffalo—who looks directly at the audience rather than the mouse—alongside the playfulness of the text implies that the creature is less scary than he appears.^[33] As the story progresses, the Gruffalo gradually appears less menacing and more frightened. Throughout the nine visual depictions of the Gruffalo in the book, he becomes, as Burke writes, more "buffoon-like".^[34] In the penultimate picture of the Gruffalo, he holds his hand to his neck area which makes him look uncomfortable. The final picture is of the Gruffalo is him running away.^[34]

Setting

The Gruffalo is set in a forest. Scheffler was inspired by the forests in Hamburg when drawing rough initial sketches for the book.^[31] The setting contains a footpath, stream, lake, mushrooms and other wildlife.^[35] He depicts the "deep dark wood" with deep green and brown tones and dark outlines.^[31] The darkness of the hues add to the feeling of suspense when reading the story.^[36] Burke writes that the trees and tree roots are "reminiscent of the Gruffalo itself, it is as if the forest has in part spawned the creature, and they serve in the story to foreshadow what is to come".^[19] Throughout the book, the setting doesn't change—the illustrations at the end of the book are a mirror image of the forest at the beginning.^[35]

Film

The book has been adapted into a 30 minute animated film,^[49] which was broadcast on BBC One in the UK on 25 December 2009.^[50] This version features Robbie Coltrane in the title role, James Corden as the mouse, Helena Bonham Carter as the mother squirrel narrator, John Hurt as the Owl, Tom Wilkinson as the Fox and Rob Brydon as the Snake.^[51] The production was animated at Studio Soi in Germany^[52] and produced through Magic Light Pictures.^[53] It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film (Animated) in 2011.^[54] The film was nominated for a BAFTA in 2010.^[55]

Theatre

The Gruffalo has been adapted for the stage by Tall Stories theatre company, premiering in 2001. The production has toured the West End, Broadway, and Sydney Opera House.^[56] A review in The Scotsman says that the play "develops Donaldson's words with perfect understanding".^[57] A review in British Theatre praises the "dynamic movements in all the scenes", including fourth wall breaks, but writes that the musical numbers and scenery are not as inspiring.^[58] The Gruffalo has also been adapted for the stage by Dutch theatre company Meneer Monster.^[59]

Awards

The Gruffalo won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize and Blue Peter Book Award's Best Book to Read Aloud.^[71] In November 2009 the book was voted "best bedtime story" by listeners of BBC Radio 2.^[72] In a 2010 survey by UK charity Booktime, the book came first in a list of children's favourite books.^[73]