There IS such a thing as a Gruffalo Game!

The much-loved Gruffalo picture book, written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, has been transformed by YAY Games into a collection of four-games-in-one – “Games from the deep, dark wood”. It can be played by 4 years and up - but with a design team of Brett J. Gilbert, Andrew Harman and Tony Boydell involved there is plenty to keep grown-up gamers happy too.

‘His eyes are orange…’ is a set collecting game, the aim is to be the first player to collect five Mouse tokens by completing sets of Owl, Snake or Fox cards.

‘Oh help! Oh no!’ is a dexterity game where the winner is the first to hide all their Mouse tokens in the right place on the deep, dark wood board. Cards show where their Mouse should be hidden. If players throw their Mouse correctly, the Mouse can stay but if they miss, they take their token back and try again.

In ‘The deep, dark wood’ game, players compete to match their cards to those on the table showing pictures of either the Gruffalo, Mouse or woodland, then place them next to each other to create a long winding path. If they don’t have a matching card, players pick a new card from the deck in the middle. The winner is the first to get rid of all their cards!

‘What’s a Gruffalo?’ is a memory game where players complete their image of a Gruffalo first to win. Each player is given a board and ten Gruffalo face down tiles in their chosen colour. A card featuring a Gruffalo body part is revealed. Players choose one of their tiles to see if it matches the card and place it on their board. The first player to add all their tiles to the board is the winner!

“We wanted to make this unique set of games the best we could make it,” says Harman. “After all, four-year-olds deserve the best games we can give them”.

YAY Games will be taking a stand near the family zone this year. But if you can’t wait that long there’s more info at www.yaygames.uk or buy the game from Amazon and Waterstones.