Into the Forest

Written and Illustrated by Anthony Browne (2004)

This book really stuck out to me because it cleverly incorporates multiple fairy tales within a fairy tale. I really enjoyed the fact that the hidden artifacts do not come out and hit you in the face, there is some searching that has to happen. The book is similar to the story of Little Red Riding Hood, but the main character is male. He never encounters a wolf, but does come across other characters that take a stab at getting him to give up the cake for his grandmother.Without looking at the pictures the characters are random, but by looking at the illustrations those characters are given depth and value. I am curious about why those specific fairy tales were chosen?


 The story of Little Red Riding Hood carries its own significance and I think Into the Forest can provide its own significance. This provides the opportunity for students to be able to critically think about the book and its illustrations so that they can come up with possible reasons behind the author's choices. I think its important to have your students look for deeper meanings in things and this book offers that opportunity. Also, I think this book has value in showing the importance of paying strict attention to illustrations. If the illustrations in this book are not being payed any attention the additional fairy tale characters will be lost. This book also can used to show how mood can be expressed in illustrations. When the boy is walking through the forest he's in color, but the forest and other characters within the forest are black and white. Along with the way the trees were drawn the color change adds an eerie feeling to the book, even though there is nothing in the text that would really provide the reader with that feeling.