Zine Review: The Boy Who Owned the Forest

Artzine, Elizabeth JMW, illustrated by Nicholas Beckett, 28pgs, [email protected], $8

This children’s zine has an eye-catching, shiny silver paper cover and colour illustrations that charm. Inside, a simple story tells of the boy who owned the forest and his scholar friends who dwell together here. Like other children’s stories, this one concludes with a simple moral. However, this moral seems to be that everyone is born with one talent and so trying to be good at everything is harmful; a message I don’t quite agree with. The water colour illustrations are scratchy and light, nice to glance at but not very expressive. The layout could use some work: the pictures are crammed in among the blocks of text, and are perhaps too small for a children’s zine. The phrases plod along, clumsily at times. I’d guess it’s far too wordy for most children who are at an age where they’d enjoy the story. (Rodney Dickinson)