Translated by :
Elisa AmadoImprint:
Groundwood Books - TorontoISBN:
9781554983858Product Form:
HardcoverForm detail:
Picture book, Printed dust jacketAudience:
Juvenile: Age (years) 4 - 7, Grade (US) K - 2Dimensions:
8.25in x 7.88 x 0.4 in | 0.66 lbPage Count:
24 pagesIllustrations:
Full color throughoutEvery night when his parents turn off the light, strange creatures descend from the black space where the ceiling used to be… First comes one, then another and then more and more. They stand all around him, staring, not saying a word. And then, worst of all comes the dark shapeless one that tells him, “I am what there is before there is anything there…”
Liniers’ art, reminiscent of Hergé and other great comic book artists, portrays the little boy’s growing terror and his frantic dash for his parents’ bedroom. Combined with hand-lettering, it creates the feeling of a graphic novel for very young readers.
Destined to become a classic about nighttime fears (like Paul Galdone’s The Teeny-Tiny Woman), this story will resonate with young children who are afraid of the dark, who might be reassured to see that although the little boy’s fears don’t go away, he does find a way to cope with them.
ELISA AMADO is a Guatemalan-born author and translator. She has written My Friend (Mi amiga), illustrated by Alfonso Ruano; Un Barrilete para el Día de los Muertos / Barrilete: A Kite for the Day of the Dead; Cousins (Primas), illustrated by Luis Garay; Tricycle (El triciclo), illustrated by Alfonso Ruano, which is on the Américas Award Commended List and is a USBBY Outstanding International Book; and What Are You Doing? and Why Are You Doing That?, both illustrated by Manuel Monroy. She lives in Toronto.
The book is brilliant in its confirmation of an essential truth of childhood. - Kirkus Reviews
Fear is the new fun, and Jon Klassen and Lemony Snicket's The Dark has an impressive rival. - Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
This bravely existential picture book eschews cute monsters in closets to capture the true reality of night terrors. - Horn Book