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Reviewed by Alysha Allen for Readers' Favorite
As a young child afraid of the dark, Lazlo will not go down into his basement. But he cannot help avoiding the dark in his own home. The dark not only lives in the basement. Lazlo finds the dark in his own room, in the closet, and even outside his window. One morning, however, Lazlo gains the courage to stand up to the dark, and the results are what he had expected…
As a previous reader of Lemony Snicket’s works in years past, grown now as an adult, I can still appreciate his often quirky style, and the characters in his stories that were both odd and yet strangely relatable to the fears and concerns of our own lives. I found The Dark just as pleasurably wacky and creatively stimulating as his previous stories, and as being suitable to read for even the most abecedarian, or newbie reader.
The Dark humanizes the abstract concept of the darkness that pervades our rooms in order to make sleeping in the dark for a person of any age less a cause for anxiety, than more perhaps as a necessary comfort -- who needs stuffed animals anymore? Well, Lazlo may not, but that doesn’t mean that we’re any less willing to sleep in the dark; we just would rather not part with our beloved teddy-bears.
Either way, once reading The Dark, your child -- and perhaps even you -- might not be so afraid of walking into a dark basement. This is a very useful skill to learn if your power has been cut by a thunderstorm. I shall be looking forward to reading this book to my niece and nephew, who are both toddlers. If not already, The Dark will indelibly mark Snicket as an exemplary children’s author for new and future generations. His works will be found in the bookshelves and hands of many young readers, or those who are only just beginning to read.
I believe Lemony Snicket should even be hailed as the new Tim Burton, but instead even better, as a writer of children’s books. And like Lazlo, we hope that you’ll begin to be able to appreciate the dark just as much as you do the light, for without the dark there would be no light.
