#8 in Picture books
The Gruffalo
- 32
- Pages
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Our view
“The Gruffalo” is made for reading aloud: in rhyme and refrain, a small mouse outwits every predator in the wood. Julia Donaldson’s trickster story runs to only 32 pages, with pictures by Axel Scheffler, and builds up to the monster of the title. There are parents who report reading it to their children again and again.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Gruffalo is a children's picture book by the English author Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler. It tells the story of a mouse strolling in a wood and encountering a series of predators culminating in the fictional 'Gruffalo'. The Gruffalo was first published in 1999 in Britain by Macmillan Children's Books. It is about 700 words long and is written in rhyming couplets featuring repetitive verse. It is an example of a trickster story and was inspired by a Chinese folk tale called "The Fox that Borrows the Terror of a Tiger". The book has sold over 13.5 million copies and has won several prizes for children's literature, including the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize.
Reading order · Gruffalo
Full order & progress →- The GruffaloThis book
8.38.3 / 10 - The Gruffalo's ChildThe Gruffalo's Child–Not ranked yet
- Gruffalo GrannyGruffalo Granny–Not ranked yet
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.7 across 143 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 49% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Picture books average of 8.3. That is how 8.3 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.6 | 88 | 62% |
| Hardcover | 8.8 | 55 | 39% |
Frequently asked
What age is The Gruffalo for?
The Gruffalo sits on the Children shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 5–10. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 32 pages — shorter than 99% of the ranked books in Picture books.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Picture books — with scores between 8.2 and 8.4, closest to this book.
