Review by New York Times Review
This elegant wordless book captures the enduring appeal of the simple flashlight. In gouache illustrations on black pages, a child starts the evening in a tent, then ventures out, projecting pure white cones of light to reveal a delicately drawn riot of nocturnal creatures and other surprises. When he trips and drops his lamp, the animals join the fun. Even they know there is nothing quite as cool as shining that beam into the deepest dark of night. GEORGE IN THE DARK Written and illustrated by Madeline Valentine. 29 pp. Knopf. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 8) On one page it's good-night kisses; on the next, little George is out the bedroom door, then clinging to it for dear life. "Every night it was the same routine," Valentine writes, cheekily capturing the failure of parenting advice in the face of primal terror. Her delightful illustrations move from bubbly daylight scenes to a scribbly nighttime world of menacing toys. There's relief, and a nice, unpreachy lesson in the meaning of bravery, as George rescues his bear from "the scariest and darkest place." SMALL BLUE AND THE DEEP DARK NIGHT Written and illustrated by Jon Davis. 40 pp. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 8) Waking up in the middle of the night is a trial for Small Blue, a stuffed rabbit the color of a moody daytime sky and furrowed with worry about witches, goblins and the like. A bear called Big Brown answers his call, letting Small Blue cling to his enormous shaggy body, turning on the light and suggesting whimsical alternatives for each of the rabbit's horrid imaginings. It's a winning approach to fear of the dark: lots of physical closeness, a few flights of imagination, and a gentle dash of cold, hard logic. WHAT THERE IS BEFORE THERE IS ANYTHING THERE (A SCARY STORY) By Liniers. 19 pp. Groundwood/ House of Anansi. $18.95. (Picture book; ages 4 to 9) The renowned Argentine cartoonist lets his subversive flag fly in this canny and genuinely scary picture book. A boy alone in the dark faces, first, an array of boogeymen, then an even more existential terror: a black, branching miasma of sinister nothingness. He flees to his irritated parents' bed, but alas, even there, the cycle begins again. A certain kind of child, and more than a few adults, will find a paradoxical comfort in the honest lack of answers or uplift. ELSA AND THE NIGHT Written and illustrated by Jöns Mellgren. 26 pp. Little Gestalten. $19.95. (Picture book; ages 4 to 9) As dawn approaches, a sleepless, grieving badger named Elsa discovers a dark blue, bean-shaped creature hiding in her kitchen: the Night. They go on an adventure, and he proves to be a loyal friend and a force for good. After all, as this ingenious and gorgeously drawn book reminds us, the Night can bring not just cool breezes and "an end to all the quarrels," but also, when we're hunkered down with our misery, the sweet release of a shift in perspective. ONLINE A slide show of this week's illustrated books at nytimes.com/books.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 5, 2014]
Review by Booklist Review
As she did with Inside Outside (2013), Boyd sets a child out alone to engage with the world, this time exploring the woods at night. The book begins with a kid reading in a tent in the dark. The only color in the otherwise black and gray landscape is what's captured in the brilliant beam of a flashlight. After the child dons bright yellow wellies, the adventure begins, and on page after page, the flashlight illuminates a variety of flora and fauna. Midway through the woods, the child trips and drops the flashlight, which is picked up by a succession of animals that were previously spotlighted in its beam. At last the boy and his menagerie rediscover the tent, and the journey is complete. With each successive page, more color appears, even outside of the beam of light, as knowledge of and comfort with the woodland surroundings grows, and the final endpapers feature bits of color, whereas the opening endpapers had none. Children will enjoy repeatedly poring over the many details and creating their own nighttime narratives for this wordless outing.--Barthelmess, Thom Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Boyd follows Inside Outside (2013) with another wordless picture book, this one about a boy's nocturnal backyard explorations. Working in gouache, Boyd paints on vast expanses of black, outlining the boy (who could easily be the same one from the previous book) and his surroundings in a muted gray-blue; using a flashlight, he aims a cone of white light high and low, creating pops of color amid the darkness. He finds a lost boot, spots bats overhead and mice underfoot, and notices a porcupine in the crook of a tree, among other discoveries. While the book clearly demonstrates just how much animal activity takes place at night, Boyd's goals aren't strictly naturalistic. After the boy drops his flashlight, it's retrieved by the very animals he found before; one by one, they turn the flashlight's crisp beam on him, observing him just as he did them. Once again, Boyd showcases a child who is fully capable of educating and entertaining himself with only a few simple tools (a camping tent, a flashlight) at his disposal. Ages 2-6. Agent: Liza Pulitzer-Voges, Eden Street. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-A wandering boy investigates the night in this wordless picture book. Bold black backgrounds feature outlines in grays, whites, and muted greens of trees, stream, plants, and animals. Each page discloses in full color something formerly hidden via the stream of light from the child's flashlight. Readers discover flags on a treehouse, apples on the ground, and a deer. In a fun twist, when the flashlight drops, various creatures take turns shedding light on the boy. A luna moth flutters on each page, waiting to be discovered. This elegant book serves to alleviate fear of night noises, instigate talk of nocturnal creatures, or bring calm as a bedtime story.-Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
A child, flashlight in hand, leaves his cozy tent and embarks on a nighttime nature walk in this inventive wordless offering. Silvery-gray gouache illustrations on thick black pages set the tone for the in-the-dark adventure. As the boy trains his flashlight on various items in the woods, full-color details become visible in the flashlight's arc. After locating his boots, he then finds some bats, a stream, a number of other animals and plants, and a strawberry snack. Careful looking allows readers to follow the nighttime creatures throughout the book both in the light and the dark. Small die-cuts highlight other details out of the flashlight's range, as do occasional spots of well-placed color. When the boy trips on a rock and drops his flashlight, the story turns gently fantastical as the animals he's been observing take the light and turn it on him. Ultimately, they use it to get him safely back to his tent. This visual exploration of the concept of dark and light provides plenty of clever details with which readers can create their own narratives. julie roach (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A wordless picture book both soothing and gently humorous.The cover displays the template that will appear throughout: black pages with stylized, silvery, moonlit flora and fauna, except where the flashlight's glow shows the colors of objects as they appear in full-spectrum light. That triangular beam will reveal such things as a beaver in a pond, bats in the sky, mice munching on apples and a set of colorful Tibetan prayer flags suspended between two woodland trees. Although rendered in gouache, the art resembles a scratch painting, with myriad tiny plants and animals inscribed into the black background, starting with captivating endpapers. On the title page, an androgynous child in a tent lies propped on elbows, reading a book by flashlight. Because there is no text, the sets of double-page spreads that follow initially leave room for interpretation as to whether one child or two are next seen happily perusing the night woods, flashlight in hand. No matter; the important elements are the amazing details in the art, the funny twist at the end and the ability of the author-illustrator to create a dark night world utterly devoid of threat.Contemplative children will spend hours on each page, noticing such subtleties as reappearing animals and the slowly rising moon over the course of one night in the forest. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
