Books Like The Gruffalo

Why it worksThe mouse's description of the gruffalo is recited twice - once as a lie, once with the real gruffalo standing there - so a child who has heard it once can chant 'terrible tusks, and terrible claws' with you, and gets the joke of the second telling. The couplets are metrically tight enough that a stumble is obvious, which is why it survives the fortieth reading.

Worth knowingThe gruffalo reveal is genuinely startling for sensitive two- and three-year-olds; the reassurance only arrives several pages later.

Why it worksEach animal loses something, finds it, and asks 'Is there room on the broom for a dog like me?' - four times, with the same closing rhyme, so children join in on the question and then supply 'Yes!' before the witch does. The dragon chase gives it a real third act, which most rhyming picture books lack.

Why it works'I'm Stick Man, I'm Stick Man, I'M STICK MAN, that's me!' comes back every time he is mistaken for a twig, and the misunderstanding is one a four-year-old can spot before the characters do - dog fetches him, a child uses him as a flag, and the reader is in on it every time.

Worth knowingStick Man spends most of the book separated from his family and nearly burnt on a fire; some children find the middle stretch genuinely upsetting.

Why it worksIt is structured as school years - Year One flying, Year Two roaring - with Zog earning a gold star each time, so a child starting school recognises the shape of it. Princess Pearl refusing to be rescued and becoming a doctor is the twist that makes parents keep it in the pile.

Worth knowingPublished in the US as A Gold Star for Zog, so US buyers searching the UK title will not find it.

Why it worksThe list pages - 'the towering icebergs and far-off lands' - are the most vocabulary-dense thing Donaldson wrote, and a five-year-old will start using words like 'shimmering' after a few readings. The snail's tiny trail message saving the whale gives small children a competence fantasy that actually pays off.

Worth knowingLonger and more descriptive than the Gruffalo, with less refrain to hang on to; under-threes tend to drift in the middle.

Why it worksSwishy swashy, splash splosh, squelch squerch - every obstacle has a noise and an action, so the whole book can be done with hands and feet, and the run home is read at double speed with the child shouting the sequence backwards. It is closer to a game than a story.

Worth knowingIt winds children up rather than down. Not a last-book-before-lights-out choice.

Why it worksThe book keeps warning you about spicy salsa in a deadpan voice, so a four-year-old spends the whole read anticipating the disaster and screams when the dragons burn the house down. Reading it as a straight-faced instruction manual is what makes it work.

Worth knowingThe joke depends on delivery; read flatly it is just a list. Also a fire and a burnt-down house, which a couple of children take literally.

Why it worksIt takes a child's rage seriously, gives it an island to run around on for three wordless spreads, and then brings him home to supper that is still hot - which is the only ending an angry four-year-old actually wants. The wild rumpus pages are where you put the book down and let them roar.

Worth knowingThe monsters frighten a good number of under-fours, and Max being sent to bed without supper reads as harsh to modern parents.

Why it worksBeep-beep plus a different animal noise on nearly every spread, so a toddler who cannot talk in sentences can still perform half the book. The mud rescue gives it a plot, which is more than most animal-noise books manage.