Tonight we will be discussing The Dark by Lemony Snicket, but we will be doing it a little differently from the typical review format. This review comes in the form of a story…
A few days ago Spawn of Scarydad and I found ourselves wandering the aisles of a large bookstore. This particular bookseller also carries toys and games and the children’s section has a table with some little toy trains that Spawn loves to play with.
As she played with the trains I wandered around looking at books until The Dark caught my eye. I sat down on a footstool and began to read.
The plot: Lazlo is afraid of the dark. The Dark lives in the basement for the most part but one night Lazlo’s night light burns out and the Dark comes into his room. This is the story of how Lazlo stops being afraid of the dark.
So, my first impression is that this is an instant classic. It’s simple and elegant and very well constructed. I felt for Lazlo. I really did. And as the story reached its climax, I found myself mentally shouting, “Lazlo, no!! Don’t listen to it!!”
Pretty intense for a children’s book, no?
So then I thought that maybe this is a bit intense for a children’s book. I don’t know. Sometimes she’s scared of nothing at all and other times she’s scared of her own hair. You never can tell with kids. But as I was looking back through the story my little Spawn came over and said, “Is that Daddy’s book?”
“It sure is.”
“I wanna see Daddy’s book.”
“Ok.”
She flipped a few pages, then asked, “Daddy’s book scary?”
“I don’t know. What do you think?”
She flipped a couple more pages before handing it back to me.
“Yeah, Daddy’s book too scary. I no want it.”
And there you go. I’m still thinking instant classic and will probably pick it up knowing that she’ll love it in the future. But for right now it’s a bit too scary.
You’ve been warned.
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I read this in the store a few weeks ago and would have loved it as a four-year-old, but I agree that it would depend heavily on the child.
I *do* think it could help some children get over their fear of the dark, though.
Did you consider getting it for when she’s a bit older. Or when Spawn of ScaryDad Redux is unleashed upon us all, perhaps?
I’m thinking about just getting it for me and if Spawn wants to read it later on, then so be it. We have a very simple rule about books here and that is “Read everything, all the time, all you want, no limits.”
I’m having to be a little cautious with what she reads lately because she’s going through a phase where things seem to scare her, but she doesn’t have the words to explain exactly what. That’s not a fun thing to have going on in the middle of the night.
That’s definitely understandable–you have to do what works for each child. Redux could be into terrifying things from the get-go. Or she could be a complete Marilyn. It shall be interesting to see.
I considered getting a copy for myself (and my husband–we’re both into that sort of thing). And I really enjoyed the artwork.
We talk about our fictional kids sometimes and they would love that sort of thing.
Your kids are really lucky to have a parent who is into this sort of spooky thing, though. My parents didn’t get it.