Into the Forest

After reading some of the negative reviews, I had some misgivings about reading this book with my 5-year-old, so I went ahead and read it by myself (to make sure the content would be appropriate for her). I felt the themes addressed in this book - childhood fears and anxiety were well done without going over the top, so I read it with her tonight. She enjoyed the book, and we spoke about fear and how to cope with our worries. Despite the rather dark overtones at the beginning of the story (the boy in the story wonders why his father is missing and then goes on a trek through the woods to get to his sick grandma's house, something his mother specifically cautions him against), the story does lighten up eventually with a neat surprise at the end. The illustrations contain references to popular fairy tales, and part of the fun is trying to look for hidden objects and references to fairy tales scattered throughout the book and found hidden amongst the illustrations, e.g. Rapunzel's tower, the big bad wolf, etc. I think children under 5 might find this book a bit over their heads, and perhaps even scary, but older children might be able to appreciate the other aspects of the book, and might facilitate a discussion on fears and anxieties.

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.

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.