“I’m the scariest creature in this deep dark wood.
Just walk behind me and soon you’ll see,
Everyone is afraid of me.”
Genre: Fiction/Picture Book
This children’s story is set in a forest scene with familiar creatures (snake, owl, fox, mouse) and one very unfamiliar one in the form of a gruffalo. The classic predator/prey dynamic is shown in this story, with a surprising twist as a seemingly defenseless mouse uses fear and imagination to survive.
As the bigger animals approach the mouse in the story, he describes a fearsome creature known as a gruffalo to them and states that its favorite food is whatever animal he is talking to. He laughs at them as they run away since it was made up, but he eventually meets the very creature he described to the other animals, who reveals that his favorite food is actually mouse. The clever mouse, however, sees this encounter as an opportunity and instead introduces the gruffalo to the same animals we saw earlier in the story. They run away in fear of the gruffalo, but the giant creature believes that the mouse is the one who is invoking this terror. The story ends with the mouse threatening to eat the gruffalo, and like all the other animals, he runs away.
This story shows that even the animal considered “prey” can outsmart the hunter and survive. It also shows the power of imagination and not backing down in the face of fear but rather turning it around to stand taller than the fear. This book is a tale of amusement and bravery for children.
The Grand Adventure 