Deniz writes: Just in case you and the children don’t love Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler enough, along comes “A World Inside a Book- Gruffalos, Dragons and Other Creatures” at the Discover Children’s Story Centre, Stratford and your love reaches another level!
This wonderful exhibition has many of the well known characters –including the Gruffalo, Room on a Broom, Zog, Stick Man, Snail and the Whale, Tiddler, Smartest Giant in Town, Squash and a Squeeze and the Highway Rat (I may have missed some!). Our personal highlight was sitting on the magical broom from the Room on the Broom book, complete with a witches hat and wand!
Get there with plenty of time because you first sit down to hear a storyteller read one of the books aloud, sitting in Charlie Cooks chair-great photo opportunity here! The reader then leads you through to a ‘World inside a book’ as the bookcase slides across to reveal the characters dotted around the exhibition.
There is little in the way of moving parts, mainly just fixed models, each in their own little area for you and the children to meander around. I am not sure if I loved it a bit more than my daughter who is 2 and a half but we will definitely go back before it ends in February 2018. The next time I might take a couple of the books with me to sit and read them around each character to give us a bit more to do – perhaps older children would have a bit more imagination to keep them occupied for longer.
Visit www.discover.org.uk/exhibitions/ for more information
