Wild Things Prequel?????? IN THE FOREST!!!!

1945 Caldecott Honor: In The Forest

Story and Pictures by Marie Hall Ets (bio from Wikipedia)

Marie Hall Ets (born December 16, 1895 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; died in 1984) is an American author and illustrator. She attended Lawrence College, and in 1918, Mrs. Ets journeyed to Chicago where she became a social worker at the Chicago Commons, a settlement house on the northwest side of the city. In 1960 she won the Caldecott Medal for her illustrations of Nine Days to Christmas. She died in 1984. Just me and In the Forest are both Caldecott Honor books. The black-and-white charcoal illustrations in Just Me "almost take on the appearance of woodcuts" and are similar in style to the illustrations in In the Forest^[  Constantine Georgiou comments in Children and Their Literature that Ets' "picture stories and easy-to-read books" (along with those of Maurice Sendak) "are filled with endearing and quaint human touches, putting them at precisely the right angle to life in early childhood. Play With Me, says Georgiou, is "a tender little tale, delicately illustrated in fragile pastels that echo the quiet mood of the story."

Book Summary

Do you know the more popular book, Where the Wild Things Are?  Then you are familiar with the story line of this book.  A young brave boy marches thru a forest with a paper hat and a horn.  Along the way the young boy invites various animals to join his march.  At the conclusion of the story the young boys father appears and asks who he is talking to, for you see the father cannot see the animal friends.

Illustrations

Only black and white are used on the pages of this delightful story.  But why?  I mean the story is not black and white, the young boy and the animals are white with the background being black, opposite of what you may think.  Is this because the boy and animals portray innocence?  Perhaps.  Or maybe it was the favorite artistic style of Ms. Ets.  We just don’t know.  The illustrations are a delight to look at.  They are simple with just enough detail to fill in where your imagination leaves off.

Final Thoughts:

1. Would this be a book I would pick up again? Yes

2. Would I recommend it to others to search out and take a look at? Yes

3. Would I spend my hard earned money on the book? Already did!

4. Where did I get the book? I own it!