Everybody has something that they are afraid of. Some people are terrified of spiders, some find large bodies of water intimidating, and then there are those who are afraid of the dark. Today's picture book explores such fears in a clever way, showing us how one little boy confronts what he is afraid of.
The Dark
The Dark
Lemony Snicket
Illustrated by Jon Klassen
Picture Book
For ages 6 and up
Little Brown, 2013, 978-0-316-18748-0
Laszlo, like many boys and girls (and even some grownups)
is afraid of the dark. The dark shares his house, and during the day it can be
found is hiding in the closet, behind the shower curtain and in the basement.
Nighttime is when the dark comes out from its hiding places. It presses up
“against the windows and doors” of the house.
At night a
little nightlight keeps the dark away from Laszlo’s bedroom. Then one night the
nightlight goes out and the dark visits the room and speaks to the little boy.
It wants Laszlo to see something and so Laszlo, with his flashlight casting a
beam of light ahead of him, goes to the place where the dark is waiting for
him: the basement.
Fear is a
crippling thing, and a fear of the dark can be truly terrible because try as we
might, we cannot keep the dark at bay. It is always there, somewhere, waiting
for night to fall. In this beautifully paced picture book a boy learns that the
dark is not what he thinks it is. He goes to the place where the dark is most
noticeable, and he discovers something remarkable about the dark and himself.
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