Into the Woods - Lyn Gardner
Overlong, partly successful fairy-tale mash-up.
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Book details
- Author:Lyn Gardner
- # of pages: 428
- Publisher:David Fickling Books
- Original Publication Date: 06/12/2007
- Genre: Fiction - Fairy Tale
- Hardcover: $16.99
- Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: 8-12
- Read Aloud: 9
- Read Alone: 10
Parents need to know
Parents need to know that children, including a toddler, are in constant peril -- injured, kidnapped, enslaved, threatened, tormented, and manipulated. Some children may find the parents, neglectful and disinterested at best, disturbing, especially when the father abandons his children.
Families can talk about Storm's dilemma. What should she have done when faced with choosing one sister to be freed? She believes she has betrayed her sisters -- has she? In an ethical dilemma in which there is no clear right or wrong, how would you decide? Also, some children may want to read the original fairy tales upon which this novel is based.
Families can talk about Storm's dilemma. What should she have done when faced with choosing one sister to be freed? She believes she has betrayed her sisters -- has she? In an ethical dilemma in which there is no clear right or wrong, how would you decide? Also, some children may want to read the original fairy tales upon which this novel is based.
Message
Social Behavior:
Consumerism:
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
A witch uses drugs hidden in sweets to control children; the children then use this drug to overcome adults.
Violence
Fighting; attacks by wolves; a man falls to his death; a woman is burned alive; children, including a toddler, are injured, kidnapped, enslaved, and in constant peril.
Sex
A kiss. An evil man plans to force a girl who just turned 16 to marry him.
Language
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by Matt Berman
Aurora has always taken care of her younger sisters -- daring, impulsive Storm, and toddler Any -- but since their mother died and their father abandoned them, it has gotten harder. When the evil Dr. DeWilde and his minion wolves invade their home looking for a mysterious pipe their mother left to Storm, they are forced to flee into the woods.
Through a series of perilous adventures they find out that the pipe has magical powers, and that Dr. DeWilde is enslaving children and adults to dig for gems in an underground mine. When he kidnaps Any, Storm and Aurora follow her trail to try to get her back. But that's just what Dr. DeWilde has in mind.
Is it any good?
The Rowling curse strikes again. If first-time author Lyn Gardner had followed the example of Lemony Snicket (whose tightly constructed little books are a clear influence) instead of J. K. Rowling (who virtually invented the fat children's fantasy) this book would have been far better. Buried in its over 400 pages is a fun little 200-page fairytale melodrama; it's really Snicket crossed with Stephen Sondheim (whose musical play the author, a British theater critic, references with more than just the title).
Kids with the patience to wade through all the unnecessary to-ing and fro-ing, and just plain flab (it takes, for instance, two entire pages for a pair of guards to fall asleep after Storm has thrown them a sweater soaked in sleeping potion), will find an intermittently exciting mash-up of various fairytales. Indeed, one of the real pleasures of the book is finding all the references. There are also some plot surprises, interestingly flawed characters, and a twisty ethical dilemma to discuss. It's a pleasant yet plodding first effort.
Other choices
More Novelized Fairytales:
Zel by Donna Jo Napoli
Swan Lake by Mark Helprin
Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley
Crazy Jack by Donna Jo Napoli
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
Beast by Donna Jo Napoli
The Fairy's Mistake by Gail Carson Levine
The Witch's Boy by Michael Gruber
More Melodrama:
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
Cousins in the Castle by Barbara Brooks Wallace
Clockwork, or All Wound Up by Philip Pullman
A Series of Unfortunate Events
by Lemony Snicket
Parents and kids say
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Which fantasy book creature has the best name?
Fluffy (3-headed dog, Harry Potter)
33%
Mister Grin (giant crocodile, Peter and the Starcatchers)
17%
Vermicious Knid (shapeshifting monster, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator)
0%
The Incredibly Deadly Viper (harmless snake, Series of Unfortunate Events)
8%
Bunnicula (vampire bunny, Bunnicula series)
42%
12 votes