#889 of 1001 · January 6, 2023

Anthony Browne creates a striking tale of childhood fears and emotions with his cryptic book Into the Forest. After hearing a terrible noise in the night, a young boy awakens to find his father gone. The next day, his mother asks him to take a cake to his sick grandmother, but warns him not to take the shortcut through the forest. The boy, however, does not listen, and embarks on the path through the woods. Along the way he encounters children evoking the narratives of Jack and the Beanstalk, The Three Bears, and Hansel and Gretel; he himself finds a red coat and puts it on, emphasizing the ongoing parallel to Little Red Riding Hood. Finally, he arrives at his destination to discover his grandmother, recuperating in the company of his father. The boy and his father return home and the family is reunited. The mystery of the opening tumult and the father’s disappearance, however, remains open to interpretation. Employing the powerful visual metaphor of a fairy tale world, Browne augments his simple first-person narrative with pencil-and-watercolor illustrations in which key objects stand out in color against stark black and white backgrounds. A textual connection: The Hansel and Gretel that appear in this book bear a strong resemblance to the characters as illustrated in Browne’s own adaptation of the tale. #forest #woods #boy #mother #father #grandmother #family #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks