Picture This: The Dark

The Dark by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Jon Klassen

Laszlo is afraid of the dark. One night, the dark unexpectedly comes to visit him in his room. "I want to show you something," the dark says. Flashlight in hand, Laszlo follows the dark into the basement. What will he find?

This is near-perfect book. It begs to be read aloud, with Snicket's poetic use of alliteration and consonance. The dark is a character that speaks to Laszlo (but it is not a monstrous or malicious entity). Klassen uses a muted color palette and plays with light and shadow, using a stark black for the dark and  gradations of shadow and light, which all together create interesting shapes and contrasts. The dark comes to visit suddenly, and Laszlo turns on his flashlight to follow the dark to the basement. We only see what the flashlight illuminates. Klassen changes the angle and position of Laszlo and his flashlight in each spread. Once they've reached the basement, the dark invites Laszlo to open the bottom drawer of a chest to discover a number of light bulbs. For some readers, this may be the moment when they realize that the dark came to visit because Laszlo's trusty nightlight went out.

What really takes The Dark down a notch is page that black page filled with text. It takes the reader out of the story, stopping the momentum dead. It's repetitive, reviewing points already addressed/described. It's a didactic lecture, explaining where you would be without a creaky roof, cold window, set of stairs, and the dark itself. Instead of allowing the reader to figure out the story and fill in gaps, Snicket does it all for you in this page, and it almost ruins the book as a whole. Were it not for that page, I would say this is an early Caldecott contender.

illustration from The Dark by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Jon Klassen