ALA Booklist (Thu Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 1999)

Here's a clever, exuberant story in rhyme with strong, color-saturated pictures to match. A mouse frightens away the fox, the owl, and the snake who would eat him by inventing a dreadful make-believe gruffalo, whose favorite foods happen to be roasted fox, owl ice cream, and scrambled snake. But the confident mouse seems doomed when his fabrication actually appears--till he hits on an inventive plan that involves none other than his three unwitting, predatory friends. The bouncy, humorous text flows smoothly. There's also some mounting (but not too scary) suspense as the monster, with terrible tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws, takes shape, piece by piece, in the pictures. This is a sure bet for small groups, with the use of italics to designate dialogue giving grown-ups a leg up for reading aloud. (Reviewed July 1999)

Horn Book (Sun Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 1999)

A small mouse outsmarts his animal predators with made-up tales of his supposedly good friend the gruffalo, a creature with "knobbly knees, and turned-out toes, and a poisonous wart at the end of his nose." When a gruffalo does appear, the mouse is surprised but uses his wiles to outwit the beast as well. Friendly watercolor pictures illustrate the story told in rhyme.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

The eponymous character introduced by this British team owes a large debt to Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. When Mouse meets Fox in the """"deep dark wood,"""" he invents a story about the gruffalo, described very much like Sendak's fearsome quartet of wild things--""""He has terrible tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws."""" The gullible fox runs away when Mouse tells him that the gruffalo's favorite food is roasted fox. """"Silly old Fox!"""" says Mouse, """"Doesn't he know?/ There's no such thing as a gruffalo!"""" Owl and Snake follow suit until, with a turn of the page, Mouse runs into the creature he has imagined. Quick-thinking Mouse then tells the monster, """"I'm the scariest creature in this deep dark wood./ Just walk behind me and soon you'll see,/ Everyone for miles is afraid of me."""" Fox, Owl and Snake appear to be terrified of the tiny mouse, but readers can plainly see the real object of their fears. By story's end, the gruffalo flees, and Mouse enjoys his nut lunch in peace. Despite the derivative plot line, debut author Donaldson manipulates the repetitive language and rhymes to good advantage, supplying her story with plenty of scary-but-not-too-scary moments. Scheffler's gruffalo may seem a goofy hybrid of Max's wild things, but his cartoonlike illustrations build suspense via spot-art previews of the monster's orange eyes, black tongue and purple prickles until the monster's appearance in full. Ages 4-8. (June)

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 3-To save himself from being eaten by a fox, an owl, and a snake, an enterprising mouse declares that he is having lunch with a monster whose favorite food just happens to be the animal who is at that moment threatening him. With each telling, the gruffalo becomes more menacing until all of the rodent's tormentors leave him unharmed. The mouse scoffs at them, for everyone knows "There's no such thing as a gruffal...." But a turn of the page reveals-you guessed it-a gruffalo, that thinks the mouse will "...taste good on a slice of bread." Undaunted, the rodent devises a plan to frighten the monster off. Young readers will love the humor in this preposterous story of a trick that backfires and the way the protagonist talks himself out of his difficulties. Best of all, they will relish being in on the joke as they join in the reading of the delightfully repetitious rhyming text. Scheffler's cartoonlike illustrations, rendered in watercolor, colored pencils, and ink, are large and well paced. Facial expressions contrast the animals' alarm with the jaunty nonchalance of the mouse. The double-page spread that reveals the gruffalo-terrible claws, black tongue, poisonous wart, purple prickles, and all-is just scary enough to tickle but not frighten youngsters. Serve this one for a rollicking good time.-Marianne Saccardi, Norwalk Community-Technical College, CT Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.