The Books
The Forest
Hardcover, 32 pages
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (2002-05-03)
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Amazon Description
I had always been afraid of the forest, that dark and unknown
place at the farthest edge of my little world. At night I often dreamed of it and woke chilled with fear. The fear was there in the day, too, hidden inside me no matter what I did or where I went. One night the fear pressed so heavily on me that I could bear it no longer.
So begins a journey of discovery for a brave little mouse who decides he must leave the safety of home to explore the forest. The world he finds is not at all what he expected.
With luminous illustrations and graceful prose, The Forest broadens the reader’s world, speaking eloquently and reassuringly to every child who has ever felt afraid of the unknown.
One Potato Review
Of dreading - and confronting - the unknown: there’s a great deal of “looming” here, and “thundering” and “murmuring,” most of it evocative. A little mouse is rightfully more afraid he’ll die of fear than get devoured by any monster, indeed you get the sense he’s never going to be happy until he stares down that forest to the tops of its rustling trees. Fear like this can turn into a compulsion, either way, but the relief at the end of this fable is finally as palpable as the trepidation when it starts, so maybe this strikes the right balance - somewhere equidistant between cozy red roofs and vast dappled woods. Simple, and satisfying, and beautiful to look at, from every direction.
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- Shh | Oct 25 2009

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