A boy awakens one morning to find that his dad is gone. “I asked Mom when he was coming back, but she didn’t seem to know.” Anthony Browne’s spare, surreal story is about a child who fills in the blanks on missing (or misunderstood) information with anxious and ominous perceptions. The boy plasters his house with notes that say “Come home dad.” The next day his mother asks him to take a cake to his ailing grandmother. “I love Grandma. She always tells me such fantastic stories.” Astute readers and listeners will soon begin to realize those stories are no doubt the source for the boy’s fertile mind. Ignoring his mother’s direction to take the long way around, the boy goes into the forest. When the boy enters the woods, Browne’s images shift to stark black-and-white to reflect the boy’s fear and trepidation (only the boy himself is still in color). In the woods he meets a series of children who seem obnoxious, mean, or unbearably sad. Each suggests a familiar folk tale character, including Goldilocks and Hansel and Gretel. When the boy finds a red coat, he puts it on, transforming himself into an image of Little Red Riding Hood just before his arrival at Grandma’s. “I was terrified. I slowly crept in. There in Grandma’s bed was . . . “ Browne masterfully uses the drama of the turning page as he arrives at the climax of this singular story that does, indeed end happily (ever after is anybody’s guess). (Ages 6–10)

A shortcut through the forest to Grandma's house produces some eerie moments - and some oddly familiar characters - in a strikingly illustrated tale about facing fears. One night a boy is woken by a terrible sound. A storm is breaking, lightning flashing across the sky. In the morning Dad is gone and Mum doesn't seem to know when he'll be back. The next day Mum asks her son to take a cake to his sick grandma. "Don't go into the forest," she warns. "Go the long way round." But, for the first time, the boy chooses to take the path into the forest, where he meets a variety of fairy tale characters.