fun<\/em> to say. Say it with me now, dear readers.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/darknightcover.jpg\")
Probably not surprisingly, as the rabid Sendak fan that I am, I love those picture books that address the fears of children — and in entertaining ways. Dark Night<\/em> is one of these books, Publishers Weekly<\/em> writing, “{Monfreid’s} insight into the fears and desires of children make for a tale that contains the winning elements of storytelling: suspense, surprise, secret passages, dressing up and hot chocolate<\/em>. It\u2019s about solving problems and conquering fears, but also just a monstrously good time.” Yeah, the emphasis there is all mine. Hot chocolate. Mmm.<\/p>\n“It was a dark night,” the book opens. For some reason left to our own imagination, a young boy named Felix, clad in his bright-red pajamas, is walking through the forest alone, “very little and very scared.” (This set-up strikes me as being very similar to the random appearance of General Fears and Weirdness so prevalent in children’s dreams. I still remember my own.) Hearing a loud, scary noise, he tucks himself inside a hollow tree. Turns out it’s a wolf, warming himself in front of a fire, as you can see in the above spread. Still hiding, Felix then hears a “GRRRR!”, which scares both him and<\/em> the wolf. It’s an even bigger and more ferocious-looking creature, a tiger this time (with a hugely huge head, I might add). But then—you guessed it—the tiger runs away when a third creature appears (\u00e0 la de Monfreid’s aforementioned ’07 title), a big, light green crocodile. <\/p>\nFelix’s knees began to shake. He curled up more tightly in the hollow tree. And then he felt something against his back. Very carefully, Felix reached behind him and felt something hard and round. It was a doorknob.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/Spread20-21.m-a.jpg\")
\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/Spread20-21.m-b.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Now, let me ask you this: How inviting is that<\/em> after the dark, scary forest? The tiny, hidden, secret house WITH HOT CHOCOLATE INSIDE. De Monfreid knows children and knows them well. <\/p>\nI don’t want to give away the entire story, but I will say: There’s a rabbit in this house. Not cute and fluffy — but friendly. When Felix tells hims, “I want to go home, but I am afraid to go back outside,” the rabbit not only offers to help — but also dons a black cape and grabs his suitcase while doing so. What’s in that suitcase? Felix finds out at the top of the stairs, and boy howdy<\/em>, do I wish I had that spread to show you: It’s a mask, a big scary devil-esque mask. The rabbit sits on Felix’s shoulders, they drape themselves in the black cape, and the rabbit puts on the scary mask. “Walk straight ahead and growl like a lion,” the rabbit whispers to Felix. Now, do you think they make it to Felix’s house? Why, of course they do, yet there’s one more little plot twist at the end. <\/p>\nSchool Library Journal<\/em> wrote, adding praise for de Monfreid’s cartoonesque watercolor-and-ink illustrations (“extraordinarily expressive”):<\/p>\n…the two small, peaceable beings turn the tables, not once, but twice on their terror-inspiring counterparts. A little cool-headedness, a dollop of ingenuity, and a big helping of friendship convert a hopeless situation into a gentle and downright funny triumph. The best part of this wonderful tale is that Felix is an Everyman among children. There is nothing about him that sets him apart from his readers, and every child will be able to picture himself\/herself in his shoes.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nWith a post title such as the one for this post, you’d think I’d be addressing way more than just two of de Monfreid’s titles, but alas and alack, I cannot, as I think these are the only two that have been published in the States. Can I just make this plea, though, for more First American Editions of her titles to any, I dunno, publishers or publisher-type-people who might be reading? <\/p>\n
Pretty please with hot chocolate on top? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“It was a wolf! Felix trembled as he watched the wolf build a great big fire and sit down in front of it. ‘Stay still,’ Felix told himself. And then, suddenly, he heard . . .” So, I certainly haven’t read all of French author\/illustrator Doroth\u00e9e de Monfreid’s titles. Far from it. I’ve only ever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/Spread10_11.m-d.jpg\")