Inside the Villains, by Clotilde Perrin, translated by Daniel Hahn

This book of fairytale baddies is a treasure to behold and kept me, the seven and the four year old busy for most of a morning on the sofa! In a large, tactile format, this funny guide to the villains of European folk tales – the Wolf, the Giant and the Witch – is an unusual blend of fact and fiction, with some nifty paper engineering.

Each of the three supersized triple spreads has a fully un-foldable portrait, as well as a new retelling of one classic story and a page of ‘More about Me’ for the reference book lovers out there.

The portraits are delightful, especially the wolf who’s got Grandma’s nightgown on under his fur, and you can unstitch his belly to reveal his poor victims quivering in his ‘misery-guts’. Even before you get onto the story you can have fun for hours remembering all the wolf stories you’ve read before, as you unpeel the layers, revealing the villains’ underpants, secret weapons, darkest thoughts and captives hidden in pockets.

The unusual newspaper-style format for the fairytales will appeal to older readers. The narratives have a good rhythm to them with the classic repetitons (“started to climb from branch to branch, leaf to leaf”) and enough new details (“I smell fresh meat!” shouts the Giant. None of your Fee-fi-fo-fum here) to feel that it’s a fresh take on familiar stories. “It must be set in France,” my 7-year-old noticed, “because Jack’s house has shutters.”

My pedantic 4-year-old asked why the story mentions the golden goose but the Giant’s portrait has him clutching a hen, but the more we read of the book the more they got into the idea that this is a reference book for an amalgam of giants, witches, and wolves throughout the ages and across the world.

The ‘My Library’ section has the Giant egotistically devouring his favourite books about himself and the list includes intriguing names of stories we didn’t know (e.g. the Japanese tale Issun-boshi) as well as old favourites such as The BFG. All day we kept thinking of more books we could add to their libraries and now we know of some new stories to look out for, too.

The Slavic child-snatching witch Baba Yaga may not be a familiar name to English-language readers, but with its echoes of Hansel and Gretel this gripping tale of the defiant little Alyoshka and creepy Baba Yaga was my favourite. I liked the interplay of Alyoshka and his parents, worn down by his endless whining to be let out on his own on the lake, and his crafty quick thinking to outwit Baba Yaga.

This combination of familiar friends and new stories and details make it a must-have for any primary classroom and book-loving family. Because of the delicate flaps and pull-out paper accessories, as a present I’d give it to a confident reader 6+ on the proviso that they keep it out of reach of less respectful little siblings!

Have a closer look at the book in Gecko Press’s promotional video for the book: