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.