Into the Forest

I loved this book. It begins in real life and goes into a fantasy world. It has imagination and allows you to see fairy tale characters in ways you didn't before. The main character keeps stumbling upon them while he looks for his father in a magical forest.
I would use this story in either a public library or school curriculum. I would attempt to illustrate multiple points of view and irony with this tale to children. Even my thirteen year old son liked this story.

I get it. Lots of literary allegory & allusions, enchanting & scary, truly evocative of a child's fears because this is what a sensitive child sees and hears. For example, Mom looks numb at the breakfast table, less because she is, but because the boy sees her that way.

But I don't like it. I'm not into creepy, and I don't think kids particularly need books like this that would, imo, be more likely to feed their anxieties than to be therapeutic.

But I could be wrong. Maybe your child, or you, would enjoy and benefit. I can't give it more than three stars, but I wouldn't be surprised if you could.

This children's book was about a boy who missed his father. He leaves notes around the house in hopes that his dad will see them. On his way back from getting a cake for his sick grandma, he becomes restless and decides to take the short way home, that his mom warns him is very dangerous. Along his way to through his shortcut, he finds a lot of kids whom he doesn't recognize. At the end of the story, it turns out his dad was with his sick grandma the whole time. The story amplifies how parent sick a child can become; parent separation.

This is a tricky one. I'm really ambivalent about it, and I think I'd like to come back to it in a couple of years, when we are a little older. I generally like [a:Anthony Browne's|35335|Anthony Browne|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1272902188p2/35335.jpg] books, because there's always something interesting going on in them, and the illustrations are stunning, but at the same time his books can be eerie, and this one most certainly is ...

The use of allusion to fairy tales in this book is superb! There are the obvious ones like Little Red and Hansel and Gretel and then there are the not so obvious one that you have look really close at the background illustrations to even find. I love it! It's like a scavenger hunt. What Browne has done with illustrations here has really impressed me. Loved the fairy tale landscape within a forest. Classic.

A boy is asked by his mom to take some cake to his sick grandma right after his father disappeared. He chooses to go through the forest where he would get there faster disobeying his mother. The story goes very similar to Little Red Riding Hood. However as the boy goes into the forest he faces surprises related with the characters of other classics such as Jack and the beanstalk and Goldilocks. A mixture of pencil and watercolor purposefully chosen by Browne to expose the boy’s wrong path – in pencil, and then as he gets to his grandma, to a known place – watercolor, providing suspense and a sense of familiarity as he walks throughout the forest.

This book follows a boy who is going to go to his grandma's place and this book follows a style of little red riding. In the book it portrays different folktales as he goes to his grandma's house. I really enjoyed this story because of the fact that it is very different from other books portraying various folktales in the story. This story keeps you at the edge of your chair and keeps you guessing what will happen next. This British author did a great job with the story and I enjoyed this book very much. Everybody should read this book!