#158 of 1001 · January 5, 2021

Any frequent reader of folklore knows that storytellers use the forest to represent magic, danger, and uncertainty. Heroes wandering among the trees must struggle against monsters and outwit villains who would do them harm. But what if the paradigm were shifted? Perhaps the good intentions of a cheery travelers can radiate outward and turn fear into safety, transform the unknown into the familiar. If this proposition sounds pleasing to you, then you just might enjoy Troll Wood by Kathryn Cave and Paul Hess. A family sets out into a dark forest where no one ever goes, deciding at every turn that they will push on though others have always turned back. At the end of their path they find a place that, with a little bit of work and love, feels like home. Cave structures the text as a simple call and response, with an omniscient narrator repeatedly asking if the family means to continue and the family resolutely responding, “We will.” Hess deliberately skews the perspective in his watercolor illustrations, depicting the wood as bizarre but not overtly menacing. He also makes the fascinating choice to place enormous trolls at the edges of many images, as though lurking just at the edge of the family’s sight—or perhaps in the corners of their imaginations. #troll #trolls #wood #woods #forest #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks