#Booky100Keepers Day 11: "The Dark" by Lemony Snicket and Jon Klassen (Orchard Books)

"Dark" books are something we've blogged about a lot over the years. Those books that tread a fine line between helping a kid overcome their fears, and actually making their fears ten times worse.

We first read Lemony Snicket and Jon Klassen's brilliantly atmospheric "The Dark" way back in 2013. At the time C was indeed like Laszlo, the main character in this fantastic book, a kid who really didn't like the dark - taking to sleeping with the landing light on and her door open a crack, or with her moon-shaped night-light on her bedside table.

Laszlo's fear of the dark is compounded one night when he has to confront the dark in the deepest darkest place in the house - the basement.

Those of you who have grown up fed on a diet of American movies where kids are petrified of the basement in their sprawling American houses will know where Snicket and Klassen are coming from here. What marked this book out for us was that it was something that ended up becoming a performance piece every time I read it to C, adopting a slightly gravelly (let's face it - menacing!) voice for the dark antagonist in the book.

But the book performs a deft twist at the end, as Laszlo realises that the dark isn't the 'bad guy' after all.

The book opens in the peachy hues of the setting sun, the precursor to Laszlo's anxiety

I can't say I'm a huge fan of Daniel Handler after the recent revelations about his rather sleazy behaviour at book cons and events, but this story is more Klassen's anyway, working brilliantly largely due to the atmospheric illustrations that ramp up the feeling of Laszlo's growing anxiety as the night begins to arrive - brought to a head by his nightlight dying unceremoniously at the start of the tale...

"Down Here" (if a clown's face and a balloon appears, RUN!)

Laszlo literally has to confront his fear head on - and Klassen begins to wrap the inkiest blackness around his characterisation of Laszlo as he descends into the basement.

As a great example of how to do a 'dark' book for kids without going too overboard, this works really brilliantly and even now in the deepest darkest moments in our lives when opening and closing your eyes to the dark makes no difference at all, you'll hear us whisper "Hi Dark, Hi" just like Laszlo, basking in the happy memories this book invokes.

Original Review Link:

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week ending 1st March 2013 Part 1: Charlotte's choice - "The Dark" by Lemony Snicket and Jon Klassen (Orchard Books)