Exhibition: A World Inside a Book: Gruffalos, Dragons and Other Creatures at Discover Children's
- Dec 15, 2018
- 3 min read
This delightful exhibition celebrating the amazing duo that are Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler is on show at the Discover Children's Story Centre in Stratford, London. Originally scheduled to run from October 2017 to September 2018, it was later extended to run until January 2019. Entry to "A World Inside a Book" costs £1.50, (in addition to the £6.50 per person fee for the Centre). More detailed pricing, together with various concessions the Centre offers can be found here:
One of the many perks of being a home educating family is being able to visit interesting attractions during term-time when they aren't the scenes of extreme chaos that we often find them to be during school holidays. We tagged along on one of hubby's business trips to the capital, with a visit to this exhibition top of our list of things to do.
We travelled by car, our Julia Donaldson audio CD collection on repeat to get ourselves in the mood, but if you would rather avoid driving, this place is easy to get to via public transport too, with the DLR and tube stations within short walking distance.
When booking tickets for the exhibition, you will be asked to select a time slot, meaning there is a cap on the amount of people accessing the exhibition at any one time; I liked this feature as it ensures it doesn't get too busy.
The exhibition is housed in the basement of the Centre and we began making our way there around ten minutes prior to our allocated time slot. The entrance area has a fantastically detailed section dedicated to some of Donaldson and Scheffler's works, showing how certain characters and ideas were developed. I love this sort of stuff so I would say try to arrive a little early so you can take your time to view these whilst waiting.
A 'Story Builder' (as members of staff at the Centre are known as) led us into Charlie Cook's living room as the exhibition commenced and it is here you realise the great attention to detail that has gone into it all - from Charlie's striking yellow armchair to the furniture and, my personal favourite, this shelf of books!
While we took a seat on the floor of the living room, the 'Story Builder introduced herself and gave the children a choice of Donaldson and Scheffler books to have read to them. "Snail and the Whale" won the vote and after she had read it aloud to us all, the Story Builder explained a little about what the exhibition would involve. At this point I was wondering where the exhibition actually was because I couldn't see any kind of an entrance within the living room. But to the surprise of adults and children alike, a bookcase magically transformed into an opening, and from there we were directed into the main exhibition itself where we were given around 40 minutes to explore and my God, what a lot of exploring there was to do!
There was the deep dark wood from the "Gruffalo", the little old lady's house from "A Squash and A Squeeze" and the family tree from "Stick Man". Ketchup and Mustard were so excited and all I could hear were delighted squeals of "Mama, look at this" "Mama have you seen this?" "Mama you HAVE to see THIS!" One minute we were marvelling at "towering icebergs and far-off lands" with the 'Snail and the Whale' and the next we were "in the treetops way up high" with the monkey from "Monkey Puzzle." We saw Zog as he "zigzagged through the blue" and rode on the "truly magnificent broom" with the witch and her animal friends. There was lots to do as well as see; Ketchup and Mustard sailed in the boat that the goat from "The Smartest Giant in Town" wanted a sail for and they donned witch hats and waved wands to cast spells in the cauldron belonging to the witch from "Room on the Broom". The time passed all too quickly and before we knew it the bell was ringing to signal the time to leave.
We've done many a Julia Donaldson/Axel Scheffler attraction; from theatre shows to outdoor trails, from indoor experiences to book launches and this has to be one of THE best. It is colourful, interactive and visually captivating. If you're planning a trip to London over the Christmas holidays, consider adding a visit to Discover Children's Story Centre to your itinerary - a must-see for Donaldson and Scheffler fans of all ages!
Click here to visit the Discover Children's Story Centre website and book tickets for "A World Inside a Book".
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