Such a timeless classic.

Haha, cute story on how to deal with nightmares! Love the artwork.

This is one of the most memorable books from my childhood. It terrified me! Reading it now as an adult, it's funny to see how my younger self completely ignored how benign the "nightmare" is and held onto the fear of that monster in the closet.

Kids befriending what they fear is--by now--a tried and true trope; this is an effective but not particularly memorable example with a nice chaser in the last couple of pages. The salmon/orangey and hunter green palette is more remarkable, and works well for the monsters in particular but can grow overpowering; the art also works better for the monsters than elsewhere. But my real hangup is that this feels so gendered and militant--the armed conflict approach makes the friendship inversion that much stronger, but it's hard to relate to and has come to feel dated. (I can't imagine kids play with realistic toy guns much these days.) This is competent, more playful than evocative, but didn't grab me.

Really, my favorite parts are the illustration where he's using a pop gun on his monster and the end when the monster is in bed with the little boy.

A young child is scared of the dark and creatures in the closet. They finally confront the nightmare in their closet and overcome their fear.

Another childhood favourite, though I had forgotten that Mercer Mayer wrote it. While in a different tone, this is every bit as good as the Little Critter series, and in some ways, better.

Mini-Me was looking awfully scared for the first part of the book, but she loved the reveal so much that she asked to read it again the minute we were done reading one.

Some repetition and easy to read words make this book accessible, and the endearing illustrations and story will charm children. This story is especially empowering because the young boy tells from the first person how he was braver than the nightmare. The role reversal of the brave boy and frightened nightmare adds humor to the story.

I teach this book when I teach my students the levels of questioning...and you'd be surprised about the LARGE questions I get about nightmares students had as children (and into today). :)

Loved this. My son used to call it "There's a White Man in My Closet."