View source for Little Grey Donkey by Nicole Snitselaar and Coralie Saudo

{{infobox2
|title=Little Grey Donkey
|author=Nicole Snitselaar and Coralie Saudo
|reviewer=Jo Heffer
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=A story about true friendship. Little Grey Donkey lives on a very small island and his only company is a little girl called Serafina who comes to visit him every day and brings him carrots and plays with him. However, one day Serafina fails to turn up and the little donkey is miserable, not knowing where she is. There is only one thing for it and that is to set off and travel to the mainland to find her. The trouble is that it is a long dangerous journey and Little Grey Donkey feels very apprehensive. He will need to overcome his fears if he is ever to find his friend.
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=32
|publisher=Top That Publishing
|date=September 2010
|isbn=978-1849562454
|aznuk=1849562458
|aznus=1849562458
|cover=1849562458 
}}

Little Grey Donkey lives on a small island in the middle of the big blue sea. As he is the only inhabitant on the island things could possibly get quite lonely for him. They do not, however, because he has a friend called Serafina, a small girl who rows across the ocean every day in order to play with him. One day though, the little girl does not come and visit and little Grey Donkey is sad. He waits all that day, and many more days to come, but she does not appear. Eventually he is so worried about his friend that he decides to go and find her even if that means going on a tricky journey. The path is narrow and terribly steep; he is scared of going in a boat and he is worried that the rusty brown lift might fall or get stuck. However, each time that he feels afraid, he thinks of Serafina and that spurs him on until eventually he finds her and realises that she has been ill. She is so pleased to see him and that makes everything that he has been through worth while.

'Little Grey Donkey' really is a most heart-warming tale and demonstrates the power of true friendship. My six year old daughter really appreciated this simple message as we were reading and thought it was wonderful the way the donkey met his fears head on at different stages of the journey, admiring his perseverance greatly. She was also intrigued by a little phrase that kept being repeated throughout the story concerning this. As Little Grey Donkey kept on 'swallowing his fears', she was fascinated by this early introduction to the world of metaphors!

The book is very easy to read with accessible language making it ideal for emerging readers as well as it being a book that is lovely to share. My daughter and I usually take turns reading the pages and this is an ideal book for doing this. There are not too many words on any page and the print is quite bold. The story is also illustrated very well by a series of beautiful pictures that look like collages. My daughter loved these illustrations and spent some time pouring over each one.

We very much enjoyed reading 'Little Grey Donkey' and appreciated the simple text and touching story. It's always lovely to read about positive relationships and the friendship between the donkey and the girl is very appealing. If you want more stories about friendship, why not try [[Bug and Bear by Ann Bonwill and Layn Marlow]].

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[[Category:Nicole Snitselaar]]
[[Category:Coralie Saudo]]