Book Descriptions
for Into the Forest by Anthony Browne
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
A boy awakens one morning to find that his dad is gone. “I asked Mom when he was coming back, but she didn’t seem to know.” Anthony Browne’s spare, surreal story is about a child who fills in the blanks on missing (or misunderstood) information with anxious and ominous perceptions. The boy plasters his house with notes that say “Come home dad.” The next day his mother asks him to take a cake to his ailing grandmother. “I love Grandma. She always tells me such fantastic stories.” Astute readers and listeners will soon begin to realize those stories are no doubt the source for the boy’s fertile mind. Ignoring his mother’s direction to take the long way around, the boy goes into the forest. When the boy enters the woods, Browne’s images shift to stark black-and-white to reflect the boy’s fear and trepidation (only the boy himself is still in color). In the woods he meets a series of children who seem obnoxious, mean, or unbearably sad. Each suggests a familiar folk tale character, including Goldilocks and Hansel and Gretel. When the boy finds a red coat, he puts it on, transforming himself into an image of Little Red Riding Hood just before his arrival at Grandma’s. “I was terrified. I slowly crept in. There in Grandma’s bed was . . . “ Browne masterfully uses the drama of the turning page as he arrives at the climax of this singular story that does, indeed end happily (ever after is anybody’s guess). (Ages 6–10)
CCBC Choices 2005 . © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2005. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
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.
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.
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.