Forest of the Dead (out of print books and nostalgia)

Partly inspired by Simon’s books thread, a bit of a sidebar into the realm of books you have nostalgic memories of, that are no longer in print. I’m thinking in particular of illustrated books from childhood.

When I was a child I loved books with detailed illustration in particular, and could get lost for hours in just the little granular touches added to give depth or an extra haunting quality. I’m going to try to track down a few others, but getting the ball rolling, here’s the gently disquieting version of Hansel and Gretel that will forever be how that story looks and feels in my mind. Spooky and with a pale wash of something almost like pointillism - rich in detail, the forest feeling like pure loneliness in impassive vastness. illustrations by Susan Jeffers. 

Parents Reply
  • I wish I could remember the exact final words, but the little boy tells her of an encounter with a brontosaurus and his granny says something like 'Ah, that must be George. I don't see him much as I'm old now' - there's this lovely ambiguity about whether she's humouring the child or had her own wild imaginings as a child and the torch of 'a dinosaur in the garden' has been passed on. Both, I suppose. I'll need to track down the book to properly remember. But it was so sensitively written. 

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