What is Julia Donaldson's hugely successful character and book, based on a Chinese folk tale of a fox that borrows the terror of a tiger?
The Gruffalo a Chinese folk tale of a fox that borrows the terror of a tiger. Donaldson was unable to think of rhymes for "tiger" so instead she invented a word that rhymes with "know". "The Gruffalo" won the gold award (in the 0–5 years category) of the 1999 Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. It was the UK's best-selling picture book of 2000, won the 2000 Nottingham/Experian Children's Book award, and the "Blue Peter" Best Book To Read Aloud award. The audio version won the Best Children's Audio award in the Spoken Book Awards. In November 2009 the book was voted "best bedtime
Julia Donaldson plays based on traditional tales, Donaldson came across a version of a Chinese story about a little girl who escapes being eaten by a tiger by claiming to be the fearsome Queen of the Jungle and inviting him to walk behind her. The tiger misinterprets the terror of the various animals they meet as being related to her rather than him, and flees. Donaldson sensed that this story could be developed into more than an educational item and returned to it later as a possible basis for a picture book. She decided to make the girl a mouse, and chose