When going though all my picture books recently while on a bit of a cleaning spree, I stumbled across “The Dark” by Lemony Snicket and Jon Klassen. I had completely forgotten about how wonderful, spooky, and touching this book is and why it should be a “must have” on everyone’s shelf.
“The Dark” is a classic story, one that most children and adults can relate to. Lazlo is afraid of the dark. Everyone’s been afraid of the dark at some point in their lives, and I don’t really believe anybody particularly likes the dark, but in a classic Lemony Snicket and Jon Klassen way they make the dark human and show that really the creepy thing that dwells in the basement isn’t all that bad.
“The dark lives in the same house as Lazlo…sometimes the dark hid in the cupboard. Sometimes it sat behind the shower Curtin.”
One day the dark finds Lazlo, and he must face his fears and follow the dark into the basement. Its delightfully creepy in the way you would expect both Snicket and Klassen to be. It’s got a very similar vibe to Jon klassens book “The skull” you can question points in the book, like why is Lazlo afraid of the dark? or why isn’t he afraid of the creaky roof noises? or where the hell are his parents? But ultimately it’s just a story about a little boy facing his fears and getting the lights back on.
I am yet to read this book in Storytime, and I’m not sure why? I think sometimes I get apprehensive about books that sometimes have stronger topics or would be considered “different”. But I also know that often those topics are the ones children and adults need the most. So this is defiantly one I will be sharing in the future.
Another book I also haven’t shared in Storytime but is one of the most incredible and heart felt books I have read in recent years. “The hare-shaped hole” by John Dougherty and illustrated by Thomas Docherty. I have spoken about this book before in one of my “Tea breaks” that I did a couple of months back. I suggested this book to a friend who had recently lost her father in law and had three very heart broken little humans at home while also dealing with her own grief and that of her husbands.
As with all good picture books this book put some incredibly complicated feelings and emotions into words that often we as adults struggle to find. That along with the incredible illustrations of Thomas Docherty makes this picture book one you can’t read without a box of tissues close by.
It explains grief or the pain of losing someone in such a simplistic way and why it can be such a hollow feeling but how we can use all our memories and joyful moments to make that pain …well less painful.
Thomas Docherty is also the most perfect illustrator for this book as his colourful illustrations make us understand the story a lot better and make the overall subject less heavy when its done with his style and effective colour.
As I said before this is not a book I have read in Storytime yet because the subject of grief or loss is a difficult one to explain when a child hasn’t experienced it. Often as adults we want to shield children from those very complicated and heavy emotions, and this book is one that I feel parents would only want to read to a child if they have experienced those emotions, and bringing it to a casual setting like Storytime could be problematic. But I also feel you can experience loss in so many ways, loss of a teddy bear, a family pet, a friend moving away, and sometimes having the words to understand it before it happens is important.
So this will defiantly be on my “to read” list for Storytime.