So gorgeous. A great book to read to kids who are scared of the dark.

I thought this was a fantastic book about a little boy's relationship with the dark. It turns out that the dark really isn't as scary as you might think. The story and illustrations worked together wonderfully to make a scary topic for little children into something friendlier.

I was disappointed in this book. It seemed to have a semi-promising beginning and I always love Jon Klassen's illustrations. The play between the light and dark illustrations in direct opposition to the alternating blank-and-white text was effective in evoking the drastic difference between light and dark which the main character perceives in the beginning.

While the message is useful--to appreciate and learn from the dark instead of being afraid of it--the middle page covered with text is jarring to the reader. The sheer volume of an entire page of text in a picture book seemingly aimed at non-or beginning readers is antithetical. I appreciate picture books that do not underestimate children's imaginations or insights and do not sacrifice growing vocabulary for hackneyed phrases(ALL of John Lithgow's picture books, for instance!). Unfortunately this book ends up doing neither. That middle page really throws off the rhythm of the language and the reader's involvement in the plot. It being a picture book (as opposed to a chapter book) there just aren't enough pages left afterward to bring the reader back into the story. Consequently, the promising beginning is only that and the book is never able to deliver its full message.

This is a great spooky tale for a spooky story time. Great atmosphere and a great message behind it. If you're planning a late night story time and want a spooky setting, this one is a great book to read.

This is a children's story about a young boy who is afraid of the dark. It's an illustrated book and it's by Lemony Snicket so naturally when I found out about it I was intrigued and wanted to find out what it was all about.

One thing I have to say is that the quality of this book is amazing. The pages are thick card which makes it wonderful to read and hold and the whole book feels sturdy and good quality. Then we have the artworks which adorn the pages. The art is by Jon Klassen and I really loved the style which Klassen used. The gorgeous rendering of the backgrounds gives a really warm and rich feeling, whilst the ominous and imposing nature of the Dark is portrayed as large expanses of black.

The idea of a young child being afraid of the dark is not unusual, the darkness is the unknown and therefore it's scary. This book, however, confronts that fear and as we follow Laszlo through his house and to all the areas of darkness we see that actually maybe it's not as scary as it first appears to be.

I would say that this book is a beautiful book and the story is a cute and heart warming one. Although it's certainly not a Graphic Novel, it's a picture book, the gorgeous colours and design of such a large, beautiful book make it a worthy addition to any Snicket collection and I would certainly recommend this short but sweet story.

I read this in about 10 minutes as it's a very short book with a small amount of writing, but the artwork I could look at for days as it's so pretty :D

I read this book while browsing the book store. The book was comforting, but I will always be afraid of the dark.

I read this to my boys, one of which is having a very hard time with the dark lately. I have to say, this book did not help the situation. Although in the end, it is happy and not scary, most of the book is tense and leads the reader into thinking something bad is going to happen. I think this would be fine for kids who aren't afraid of the dark themselves or like the anticipation. My son, however, said half-way through "I don't like this book" with round eyes. I finished it, to show him it wasn't really scary, that the dark was actually nice and helpful. But I won't be reading again.

This was perfect, and then all of a sudden there was this out of place page where the voice changed and there were 23583702958723895 lines of text and it sounded like an author's note written ostensibly for children but really for parents, AND THEN the narrative and the art continued as if it had not happened and it ruined the book for me. Worst commercial break ever.

But also, it was very interesting Jon Klassen art that was different than what I've come to expect but also still very much his signature as an artist, and he's excellent, so that's good.

Summer #bookaday 28