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DARK NIGHT by Dorothée de Monfried

DARK NIGHT

by Dorothée de Monfried & illustrated by Dorothée de Monfried

Pub Date: Sept. 22nd, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-375-85687-7
Publisher: Random House

Originally published in France as Nuit Noire (2007), this charming, not-so-scary bedtime read-aloud drapes like a comforting quilt of familiar storybook characters. Readers don’t know why a tiny, red-pajama–wearing boy like Felix is traipsing through the forest alone one dark night, but they won’t be surprised when he hears a loud “AHOUOUHOU!” and hides inside a tree. As the boy trembles to behold a fire-building wolf, ferocious tiger and even a crocodile, he burrows further into the tree until he feels a protruding doorknob on a door that leads to a cozy rabbit dwelling. The rabbit agrees to help Felix get back home, and promptly rigs a disguise with a devilish mask and cape so the pair, stacked and newly monstrous, can intimidate the forest creatures. De Monfreid’s cartoonish pen-and-ink drawings render the broccoli-treed forest more friendly than ominous, and the triumphant finale in which the human-rabbit team banishes the beasties and celebrates with two mugs of hot chocolate doesn’t hurt either. In a clever touch, the sky turns from night-blue to lilac to pink as the sun comes up, and the dark night is no more. (Picture book. 4-7)