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Title: Into the Forest
ISBN: 0763625116
Author:
Publicate Date: 2004-09-09
Publish: 2004-09-09
List Price: $16.99
Average Customer Rating: 3.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $7.77
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $5.25
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Not a children's book
Okay, while the author has good intentions, he's not in touch with children. Four year olds are not ready to deal with missing parents, issues of aging grandparents and subtle references to fairy tales our parents told us. This is a scary, spooky nightmarish story for a 4 year old. So, if you want your child up all night because you scared the dickens out of him/her, read this. If you care about your child, this is not a story for them.
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2: Depressing
My 3 year old was given this book for his birthday and upon reading it we were distressed by its sombre nature.
Dad disappearing,mum looking nothing short of miserable at the breakfast table and then having no idea where he'd gone was beyond belief.After pasting "Come back dad" stickers all over the house the boy embarks on a journey through a forest.There he meets yet more sad children who are also looking for their parents.We found nothing in this book of benefit to a 3 year old,the illustrations were detailed but harrowing and the references to fairy tales cryptic.We want our 3 year old to be happy and enthusiastic about life so we have chosen not to add this book to his book shelf.Incidently dad does return but if I was mum I'd be suitably furious!!
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3: Confronting fear, anxiety, and worry
Anthony Browne taps into the universal when he writes about a boy whose father disappears in the middle of the night, whose mother looks sad and worried in the morning, and then who is sent off with a cake to his ailing grandma's. He takes a shortcut through the forest, although he's been told not to, and meets several characters in the forest from well-known fairy tales. It turns out that he is part of a fractured fairy tale, himself, Little Red Riding Hood. The pencil drawings of the forest bring out the mood and emotions of the story, and the happy colors near the end reinforces the sense of relief that all the worry was not necessary.
This is a book you could read over and over, and that a child will pick up on her own to look at the pictures, because there are many details to pick up. Shadows are not what they seem (the one on the cover is a bunny rabbit) and on the Hansel and Gretel page, the shadow turns out to be Browne's kindly gorilla from earlier books. There are creatures in the trees, symbols of other fairy tales all around if you look carefully for them. There's even a one-legged tin soldier on the first page. Grandma's house has kitty ears.
This is a beautifully drawn and told story about confronting anxiety and worry. So many times children worry about what is going on in their grown-ups' lives, and they don't understand what is real and what isn't, and many times Mommy and Daddy are so worried themselves -- over a health crisis with an elderly parent, for instance -- that they don't take time to explain.
This book explains and puts it all into surreal fantastical perspective. I love picture books that work for both adults and children, and this one does wonderfully.
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4: A Forest Full of Strange Trees
If you are familiar with folk tales you may understand Into the Forest. Anthony Brown has cleverly designed a journey through the woods to grandmother's house that sets up familiar expectations and raises more questions than it answers. The book invokes the anxieties of childhood, particularly feeling lost and wondering where one's parents have disappeared to -- a bit like a bad dream where nothing actually happens. The forest is exquisitely drawn in grey pencil. Every leaf is perfectly placed on the forest floor, while the wild trees tangle together above. The longer you look, the more you see -- strange forms and figures, many recognizable from folk tales, are hidden in the tree shapes. Although I am intrigued by this book, I would only sit down to read it with my child when I am feeling secure and ready to talk with him about his anxieties and strange dreams.
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