Into the Forest [Hardcover]

Anthony Browne (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

A shortcut through the forest to Grandma's house produces some eerie moments — and some oddly familiar characters — in a strikingly illustrated tale about facing fears.

One morning a young boy wakes up to find that Dad is gone. And in this affecting tale from acclaimed picture book artist Anthony Browne, nothing seems quite right after that. When Mom sends the boy to deliver a cake to Grandma, he decides to cut through the forest, a route he's been warned not to take. Soon he's off on a strange, dreamlike journey full of fairy-tale allusions — a personification of a child's anxiety as reflected in the surreal illustrations of Anthony Browne. It's a haunting place where nothing is quite what it seems, until the boy — and the reader — are deeply relieved to arrive at a warm, welcoming homecoming.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3–After a stormy night, a boy awakens to find his father gone. The child misses him terribly, though the specifics of his whereabouts are unstated. When the boy's mother asks him to take a basket to Grandma, who is not feeling well, she warns him not to take the shortcut through the forest. Worried that he might not be home when Dad returns, the child disobeys. Starkly illustrated in black and white, with color used to highlight the boy, this forest is quite ominous. The trees are full of spikes as he enters, and gnarled with faces that loom over him on ensuing pages. The boy encounters a variety of recognizable, if a bit mean, fairy-tale characters–Jack trying to sell his cow, Hansel and Gretel, and a selfish Goldilocks. He even finds a red coat, completing his transformation as Red Riding Hood. Recalling a story his grandmother told him about a bad wolf, the boy is terrified to open her door. Yet in a surprisingly reassuring twist, he finds his comforting Grandma, who's feeling better, and also his dad. Browne's text is deceptively short, leaving much room for interpretation. As usual, his hyperrealistic, pencil-and-watercolor illustrations are full of rich details. Each child may take something different from this psychological picture book, but the reassuring ending is especially comforting. It is possible to go into the forest of dreams/the imagination and emerge even stronger.–Robin L. Gibson, formerly at Perry County District Library, New Lexington, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 3-5. In this picture book for older children, Browne's beautiful surreal imagery reveals a child's terror in ordinary life. A young boy wakes up one morning to find that Dad is gone. There is emptiness everywhere. When sad Mom asks the boy to take a cake to Grandma, he chooses the forbidden path, and he is lost in the wood. The clear pencil pictures of the forest, with only the boy in bright watercolors, show bare, shadowy trees full of frightening spikes, gaping holes, and branches like thick tentacles. As his journey progresses, the boy encounters contemporary kids in elemental fairy-tale roles-- among them, Red Riding Hood and a bespectacled brother and his sobbing sister who have been abandoned by their parents. Finally, the boy knocks on the door of Grandma's cottage--and finds Dad inside. As with most fairy tales, there's a huge turnaround at the close--a happy return home, presented in glowing color. The power of the story is in the fearful detail that reveals the child's nightmare of being forsaken. Readers older than the elementary-school audience may want to talk about the story's connection to timeless fairy tales such as "Hansel and Gretel" as well as its psychological underpinnings. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick; 1 edition (September 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763625116
• ISBN-13: 978-0763625115
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 9.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,739,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Confronting fear, anxiety, and worry, October 6, 2005

By 

Reader "Carrie" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Into the Forest (Hardcover)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Forest Full of Strange Trees, November 6, 2004

By 

Solveig L. Dimon - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Into the Forest (Hardcover)

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.

5.0 out of 5 stars Inton The Forest, October 19, 2011

By 

Phil - See all my reviews

This review is from: Into the Forest (Paperback)

Into The Forest tells a story resembling a bunch of other fairytales: Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Puss and Boots, Rapunzel, Rumple Stilt Skin, and a few others. Browne tells of a little boy taking food to his grandma who takes the short cut through the forest despite his mother requesting him to take the long way. He encounters characters from past fairytales on his way to his grandma's house. It is interesting to note how the boy remains in color and the past stories are in black and white. When he gets to his grandma's house, his father is also there, who was missing in the beginning. This book is a good story for children who have read the stories that this metafictional book makes reference to within itself. It is a lighthearted, fun book to read to children and to try and note all the previous stories.