The Dark, by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Jon Klassen, 2013, New York, NY: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. 40 pages. ISBN: 978-0316187480.
Age/Interest Level: 5-8 years
Lexile Level: 660L
Awards: Charlotte Zolotow Award (2014)
Reader Annotation: Laszlo is terrified of the dark, but that’s okay because normally the dark stays in the basement. However, one night, the dark comes into his room.
Plot Summary: The dark mostly sticks to the basement, which is just fine with Laszlo. He’s afraid of the dark. Each day, he would go down to the basement just to say hello to the dark. The hope was that if he visited it where it lived, then the dark would never had a reason to visit him. However, one night, the dark comes into Laszlo’s room. He speaks to him. He leads Laszlo down to the basement and asks Laszlo to open an old drawer.
Critical Evaluation: Lemony Snicket has a way of taking universal themes and twisting them until they’re almost unrecognizable and then returning them in a form the audience didn’t realize they needed to read. The Dark is no different, and he plays on the traditional idea of being afraid of the dark. This time, however, the dark is anthropomorphized. This is not a book of fear based on creatures that go bump in the night. This is a genuine being. This is also a testament to Klassen’s work, as he uses so much black so effectively that it comes off as its own character. The dark pulses throughout this book, and it’s an effective way at allowing children to examine their fears to determine what they’re really afraid of.
Why Included: This is an unconventional look at a universal fear. It does not sugar coat what it means to have a fear, but it makes it just a little more bearable.
Age/Interest Level: 5-8 years
Lexile Level: 660L
Awards: Charlotte Zolotow Award (2014)
Reader Annotation: Laszlo is terrified of the dark, but that’s okay because normally the dark stays in the basement. However, one night, the dark comes into his room.
Plot Summary: The dark mostly sticks to the basement, which is just fine with Laszlo. He’s afraid of the dark. Each day, he would go down to the basement just to say hello to the dark. The hope was that if he visited it where it lived, then the dark would never had a reason to visit him. However, one night, the dark comes into Laszlo’s room. He speaks to him. He leads Laszlo down to the basement and asks Laszlo to open an old drawer.
Critical Evaluation: Lemony Snicket has a way of taking universal themes and twisting them until they’re almost unrecognizable and then returning them in a form the audience didn’t realize they needed to read. The Dark is no different, and he plays on the traditional idea of being afraid of the dark. This time, however, the dark is anthropomorphized. This is not a book of fear based on creatures that go bump in the night. This is a genuine being. This is also a testament to Klassen’s work, as he uses so much black so effectively that it comes off as its own character. The dark pulses throughout this book, and it’s an effective way at allowing children to examine their fears to determine what they’re really afraid of.
Why Included: This is an unconventional look at a universal fear. It does not sugar coat what it means to have a fear, but it makes it just a little more bearable.