Review of WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD BOOK?

Bibliography:

Child, Lauren. 2002. Who’s afraid of the big bad book? Illustrated by author. New York: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN 0786809264

Review:

Did you ever wonder what happens when you draw in storybooks and don’t treat them the right way? In Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Book?, Herb discovers that fairy tales may not end “happily ever after” when he falls in to his mistreated book and meets Goldilocks, Prince Charming’s parents, Cinderella, and her stepmother. Lauren Child has written and illustrated this hilarious story that will captivate readers of all ages. Children familiar with Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Cinderella will enjoy the problems that Herb has created for the main characters. The author has cleverly interrupted the traditional tales with the appearance of Herb, who has “a horrible feeling that he might be responsible for the disappearance of Prince Charming”. Herb soon finds that the characters blame him for their problems, and he has to run. Child uses the physical attributes of the book to help in Herb’s escape. For instance, when Herb is trying to escape from the queen, “there wasn’t time to get to the door but, by snipping a hole in the palace floor, (he) managed to wriggle through onto the next page”. In addition, the section with the wicked stepmother is presented upside down. Readers who get dizzy while flipping the book around to follow Herb’s encounter with the wicked stepmother can blame Herb for this because he is the “good-for-nothing child (who) tore out (the) page and put it back upside down”. Lauren Child’s illustrations, which incorporate pencil drawings and collage, add to the fun of the story and lend a dreamlike quality to the book. As Herb runs through the forest past a drawn Puss in Boots and Hansel and Gretel, readers notice the real grass, trees, and tower in the scene and wonder if Herb is actually in the book or just dreaming. Regardless of whether he dreamt the story or not, when Herb escapes the book with the help of the Fairy Godmother, he works hard to erase his pencil marks, clean out the crumbs, and return the book to its original state. Readers who want the story to continue can check out Beware of the Storybook Wolves (2001), another of Lauren Child’s fractured fairy tale books about Herb.