Gruffalo Granny             
Julia Donaldson 
Ill. Axel Scheffler

 

Gruffalo Granny 
Julia Donaldson 
ill. Axel Scheffler
Macmillan (2026)
Picture book
32 pages, Hardback
ISBN 978 1 0374 0872 4

 

‘The Gruffalo said to his daughter one day’
“Your Gruffalo Granny is coming to stay.”’

 Like good wine, a Gruffalo book needs no bush. Generations have been raised on The Gruffalo (1999) and The Gruffalo’s Child (2004). Now we have the pleasure of Gruffalo Granny (2026) which shows that good things are worth waiting for.

 The Gruffalo is very proud of Granny Gruffalo.

‘Her fur is grey and her prickles are red.
She’s very bright – she can read and write!
And she has an ENORMOUS appetite.’

 Before Granny arrives at the family cave, the gruffalo and his daughter decide to search ‘the deep dark wood’ for stew ingredients. There’s a lovely ritual interplay as each of the very familiar animals selected for the pot suggests a better candidate for stewing purposes. First up is the fox.

‘I’m certain that Granny likes foxtail soup,’ says the gruffalo, but the crafty fox suggests owl pizza instead. The owl’s counter-proposal is ‘snake with strawberry sauce.’  The snake, of course, nominates the only possible animal for a gruffalo to eat.

‘Not so,’ said the snake. ‘I thought you knew
That grandmothers always adore mouse stew.’

 In a trice, the little brown mouse is in a cage, while the gruffalo and his daughter are popping carrots into their steaming cauldron. When the gruffalo moves to add the mouse to the stew, the mouse puts on a Scheherazade-like expression and asks, ‘But wouldn’t you like a story first?’

 Every reader knows what to expect – the mouse will always outwit the gruffalo but it is wonderful to see the detail of how he does it. The two gruffalos are entranced by the stories and put off cooking him so they can hear the ending.

‘But you’re yawning. Tomorrow I’ll tell you the rest.’

Because the mouse is telling stories by night and sleeping by day, the gruffalo and his daughter have time on their paws. They use it gathering more vegetables for Granny’s stew.

‘A cabbage, some leeks and a turnip or two.’

 The ending, with the arrival of Granny, is both traditional and a surprise. There is a happy conclusion for everyone, even the mouse.

 People have been reading the Gruffalo books for decades, but Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler have also produced many other titles together. Most young (and some old) readers of Gruffalo Granny will be delighted to find subtle references to several of these stories hiding in plain sight in these pages. [Hint for puzzled parents and grandparents: Room on the Broom, The Snail and the Whale, Stickman, Monkey Puzzle. - T.A.] Of course, book-loving Granny’s habit of jotting down story ideas to retell means that the mouse may find his tales appearing elsewhere. Careful scrutiny of the last picture, however, shows that the mouse is doing berry well out of his visit to the gruffalo cave.  

 Illustrator Axel Scheffler has packed his charming colour illustrations with all his usual amusing details. When the mouse tells his stories, they appear as sets of circular cameos. Particularly enjoyable are the animals peeking out from the trees and bushes, not to mention the birds and bats which fly out of the story and across the endpapers.

 Grandma Gruffalo is a welcome visitor who has come to stay.

 

Trevor Agnew
10 Nov 2026  [Review 3875.]