It was supposed to rain but not a single drop fell from the sky so instead we had muggy hot weather aka a typical Texan summer day. It probably felt even hotter now that my 24th week belly is getting quite heavy. Heavy and hot. Thank goodness I work in a perfectly air conditioned office so I can't complain at all. I don't like to be outside at times like these though so I went home right after work and stayed indoors for the remainder of the day.
Well it was just a great time to stay home because a lovely package was waiting for me! Two new books and two new DVDs that I had ordered from amazon.com last week!
The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and The Gruffalo movie as well.
The sequel: The Gruffalo's Child and of course the movie The Gruffalo's Child in DVD too.
We saw the Gruffalo's movie for the first time last year and my boy and all his cousins were in awe and wanted to watch it over and over again. So after I learned there was a sequel called the Gruffalo's Child, I decided to go ahead and buy the books and both the DVDs too. Not regretting one bit as the kids once again fell in love with the short animated cartoons and they can now read the books as well.
If you are not familiar with the story, here is a quick recap. A little mouse scares away a fox, an owl and a snake by telling them about a monster he calls a Gruffalo. But when the mouse really meets such a monster and is about to get eaten, he does not lose his cool and tricks the Gruffalo as well. A very clever mouse he is!
The sequel is about what the title says: The Gruffalo's child. The daddy Gruffalo tells his little one to not wander in the woods alone because of the Big Bad Mouse. The little Gruffalo goes out in the woods anyway to find this Big Bad Mouse. This story is hilarious and charming as well but I think the first story was better.
Julia Donaldson's rhymes are fun to read and the pictures by Alex Scheffler are more funny than they are scary. Even my little 2 year-old nephew laughs and enjoys looking at the pictures and hearing us read the story.
I do prefer to watch the movies though because they are so well made. The voices, the flow, the music, everything is just perfect and the kids can't watch them enough. A warning though, the first movie does show quite a lot of animals eating other animals so it may seem gruesome at first and some explaining will be needed for the little ones.
Malheureusement, la version française des dessins animés n'exite pas encore.
Il existe cependant une version française de ces livres intitulés Gruffalo et Petit Gruffalo mais comme je n'ai pas lu ces versions, je ne peux vous donner une opinion quant à la traduction.