Into the Woods

Title: Into the Woods

Author: Lyn Gardner

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Children's, Fairy Tale Retelling, Adventure

Number of Pages: 428

Publication Date: 2006

Publisher: Corgi

Summary: Aurora, Storm and Any Eden are accidentally orphaned and left to fend for themselves, when they come under the unwanted attention of Dr DeWilde. The sinister Dr DeWilde is set on obtaining a pipe that Storm has inherited and the three sisters are forced to flee into the woods to escape him.

With Dr DeWilde close at their heels the three sisters are catapulted into a dangerous adventure to save their own lives and those of Piper Town.

Into the Woods is a mixed collection of fairy tale retellings combined into one story. This story incorporates Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel and many other favourite fairy tales to create a fantastical world filled with adventure and quick thinking heroines. Like all good fairy tales, Into the Woods is centered around a hero who must outwit the bad guy who is a threat to everyone by completing an adventure. As I started reading this story I was worried that all the characters and story lines they were introducing would never fit to together without losing the integrity of the original fairy tales, however, Gardner managed to subtly weave the different plot lines together and work each of the different fairy tale characters in a very believable way.

The thing that I loved the most about this book was one of the minor story lines that is carried throughout the book, which is Kit with his mixed personality. Kit is described as having one emerald green eye and one ice blue eye. Kit's eyes are the physical manifestation of the internal struggle he goes through. His green eye represents his want to be the hero or good guy while his blue eye represents the frozen portion of his heart that does more evil than good. Kit's situation gave the book a lot of emotional depth to the story line as well as providing much entertainment. While heroes are guaranteed to win in fairy tales, Kit's inner struggle left you questioning over which side would win. His character brought anguish and pain, and added to the depth of how real the characters over all were. As for entertainment; well every time Kit tried to do something good, his alter-ego would betray him and try to bring about the capture of the Eden sisters and when his alter-ego was beginning to corner the heroines, Kit would step in and reveal the path to freedom. It was like watching someone play chess against themselves...no one can win. My only wish for this book was that their wasn't more Kit.

Like all good fairy tales, Into the Woods has a moral to the story. In this case it is the balance between fun and work that Storm and Aurora learn through their adventures. Storm is wild in nature, she likes to make fire works and not do anything responsible. Aurora has always been the one given all the responsibility and as a result finds itemising the linen closet, dusting, and knitting and sewing to be highly entertaining endeavors. Throughout the course of the book the two sisters, while holding onto their wild and domestic personalities, learn to balance, They learn when it is ok to let go and have fun and when you have to take responsibility for whats happening.

If I had read this book as a children or early teen I would probably have loved this book and given it five stars, but being that little bit older I can only give it four.