The Dark by Lemony Snicket

Little Laszlo is terribly afraid of the dark. But the dark is all around him, outside his window and house at night. The dark is even in his house. It lives in his basement!!
One very dark night, Laszlo is forced to confront his fear of the dark and meet it head on. Summoning his courage he goes out to meet the dark in his basement. Instead he discovers that the dark isn't so frightening after all. The dark does its thing and Laszlo does his.





Everyone can relate to little Laszlo's fear. My imagination used to run wild when I was a child. In the early morning hours, I was certain snakes slithered across my bedroom floor and it took enormous courage to jump out of bed and race into my parent's bedroom down the hall!


Lemony Snicket is the pen name of author Daniel Handler who wrote A Series of Unfortunate Events. As most younger readers know, Snicket is both author and narrator in the series.









The Dark is filled with Jon Klassen's gouache illustrations bearing his typically expressive, appealing touch. The illustrator of a picture book is so important because their drawings must portray a part of the story visually. Klassen always succeeds remarkably in this way.









As usual there's a delightful trailer that captures the tone of the picture book:



Book Details:
The Dark by Lemony Snicket
Toronto: HarperCollins 2013