[BOOK REVIEW] The Dark by Lemony Snicket

Title:  The Dark

Author:  Lemony Snicket

Artist:  Jon Klassen

Genre:  Fear / Courage / Bedtime

Year Published: 2013

Year Read:  2014

Publisher:   Little, Brown and Company

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 4+ (Some Scary Scenes)

       

 

Now, I will admit that I have not read any of Lemony Snicket’s works before (not even his famous “A Series of Unfortunate Events” series), so consider Lemony Snicket’s children’s book “The Dark,” along with illustrations by Jon Klassen to be my first book that I had read from Lemony Snicket and I must say that I really enjoyed this book!

In this book, a young boy named Laszlo was afraid of the dark, even though the dark was not afraid of him.  One night, Laszlo’s night light goes out and the dark suddenly sneaks into his room and asks him to come downstairs to the basement so it could show Laszlo something.

What will the Dark show Laszlo and is it a good thing or a bad thing?

Read this book to find out!

Now, as I have mentioned before, I had never read a book by Lemony Snicket, even though I have heard of his famous “A Series of Unfortunate Events” books and I assumed that when I saw the title of this children’s book “The Dark,” I thought that this was going to be a horror filled tale that involved a young boy confronting the Dark.  However, while this book can be pretty scary for small children who are afraid of the dark, this book is actually quite cute once I got through it!  I loved the way that Lemony Snicket made the Dark into some kind of living personification of Laszlo’s fears as it entices Laszlo to come down the basement to get something, even though Laszlo has never been down to the basement when it gets dark.  This makes the Dark a pretty frightening presence in the story as we do not know what it wants to show Laszlo or if its intentions are good or bad and it really makes the dark stand out as a huge force in this book.  Jon Klassen’s artwork is both cute and frightening as Laszlo is drawn as a cute little boy who is usually shown in blue pajamas, but most of the pictures are pitch black, especially when the dark comes to visit Laszlo in his bedroom.

Overall, “The Dark” is a cute and inspiring book by Lemony Snicket that will help small children cope with the dark!  I would recommend this book to children ages four and up since the images of the dark filling up the pages might scare some small children.