Snicket, Lemony.
THE DARK
Boston : Little, Brown, 2013
IL K-3, RL 3.4
ISBN 0316187488

(2 booktalks)

Booktalk #1

What are you afraid of?  Monsters?  Zombies?  Giant pickles?  Well, Laszlo is afraid of the dark.  He is always ready with his flashlight close by.  One night, the dark visits Laszlo.  The dark lures Laszlo to the basement.  His bravery shines through and he meets the dark, face to face.  A surprising lesson awaits Laszlo in the bottom of an old chest of drawers.  What will he see when he opens it?  A young boy and a common childhood fear are paired together to spread the message of “it is not as bad as it seems”.  (Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award, 2015)

Booktalk #2

As a child, I was absolutely terrified of the dark because I imagined all sorts of creatures that I was sure were hiding there. Laszlo is no different than I was or many, many other children everywhere. In Laszlo’s house, he lives upstairs and the dark lives in the basement. Neither Laszlo nor the dark hardly ever venture out of their places. But one night, the dark visits Laszlo and asks him to come down into the basement. Laszlo was afraid of the dark in the basement, but he went down anyway. When he gets there, the dark gives him something wonderful and comforting that makes Laszlo stop being afraid of the dark. If you have ever been afraid of the dark, remember that the dark is not afraid of you, just as Laszlo learned in this wonderful book about a common childhood fear entitled The Dark by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Jon Klassen. ( Prepared by: Beth Miller, East End Elementary School, Easley SC,  South Carolina Picture Books Award Nominee, 2016)