INSIDE THE VILLAINS

Inside the Villains by Clotilde Perrin twists fairy tales as we know them and shows us what's going on inside the mind of a villain (literally!).

In this over-sized pop-up/lift-the-flap/pull-the-tab book, we meet three famous fairytale villains: The Wolf, The Giant, and The Witch. There's a lot to look at on every single spread. On the left there is a personal introduction from the character's point of view, and the intro opens into a personality card, bibliography, and story featuring the character. On the right side we find the characters themselves, and each one is covered in multiple interactive features for readers to play with. As we peel back the layers we see things like how The Wolf's brain works, how The Giant gets his golden eggs, and what The Witch carries in her front pocket (hint: it's a cat!). Each new layer reveals not only how wicked they are but how they have their own sets of fears and shortcomings, too.

Each character is engineered immaculately, to the point where no part of the experience feels redundant. There's strings to pull to see what's inside of The Wolf's belly, and flaps to reveal the many, many layers of the Witch's dress. And there are little pieces that pop right out for readers to play with. The images have a very sinister and mischievous feel to them, evoking the naughty tone of much older children's books like Heinrich Hoffman's Struwwelpeter. The large trim size adds to the novelty feeling of experiencing the book, especially for the first time, and overall the book is an amazing amount of fun for only three spreads (though I want more!).

Inside the Villains publishes September 1, 2018 from Gecko Press!

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