The Forest

　　走入森林本就是一件冒險的事，既是與大自然的相處，也是與自己相處。森林裡的路，一如人生的路；路崎嶇、陡峭、平坦、陰暗、寬廣、未曾踏過的……在森林裡什麼都有，練習已知，處理變化，面對未知。這本書是義大利作家與繪者，由美國的Enchanted Lion 出版。裝幀的方式每一頁都是回折，靠近中央的部分夾了兩張拉頁，不論是打凸還是壓印、切割，都試圖突破平常繪本的框架。

　　書衣的選紙尤其亮眼，彩印在厚描圖紙上，像是迷霧罩著森林，描圖紙書衣是前景，書封成了背景。書名只留在書衣的書背上，簡單明瞭，加上以144頁做成72頁，拿起來是一本相當有份量的書。

　　——摘錄自Okapi：賴嘉綾：開拓閱讀視野，「不討好」的選書態度──近看《紐約時報》2018年度最佳繪本✕10

A New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book of 2018! ★ A book about the journey of life, from our wide-eyes of childhood through the tangles and brambles, into our end.

A lyrical book about the adventure of life, The Forest is also a magnificent visual work, both painterly and a technical feat of paper engineering. In these beautifully considered pages, sensory experience and the textures of the material world are rendered through die-cuts, embossing, cutouts, and two gatefolds.

Riccardo Bozzi is a journalist and has worked for the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera since 1990. He is the author of The World Belongs to You, illustrated by Olimpia Zagnoli (Templar/Candlewick, 2013) and Cher auteur, illustrated by Giancarlo Ascari and Pia Valentinis (Hélium, 2016).

Violeta Lopiz is a Berlin-based Spanish illustrator. She has illustrated numerous books including The Forest (Enchanted Lion Books, 2018), Amigos do Peito (Bruaa, 2014), and Les poings sur les iles (Editions du Rouergue, 2011), which received the CJ Picture Book Award 2011 in the New Books category. She has participated in exhibitions in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Israel, Turkey, USA, Japan, Korea, and more. El Cultural, the supplement of El Mundo, considers her one of the top ten names of contemporary Spanish illustration. Her work can be found in bookstores, streets, fairs, newspapers, and the thousands of notebooks that she leaves scattered around.

Valerio Vidali is an Italian illustrator of children’s books. His book Jemmy Button (Templar/Candlewick, 2013), co-authored with Jennifer Uman, was selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 Best Illustrated Books of 2013.