Mini Monday #55

It’s back! It went on short hiatus but it should be back for good now! I have taken away the “thumbs up, thumbs down” rating and have just started using my star rating system.

MINI MONDAY is where my oldest son and I read and review a couple children’s books every week.

The Dark by Lemony Snicket

Illustrated by Jon Klassen

Release Date: April 2nd 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 40
Source: Library
Author: Website | Facebook | Goodreads
Illustrator: Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | The Book Depository 

Add it: Goodreads

Laszlo is afraid of the dark. The dark is not afraid of Laszlo.

Laszlo lives in a house. The dark lives in the basement.

One night, the dark comes upstairs to Laszlo's room, and Laszlo goes down to the basement.

This is the story of how Laszlo stops being afraid of the dark.

This is a story about a young boy named Laszlo. Laszlo is afraid of the dark, specifically the dark in the basement. Then one night when the dark comes to Laszlo’s room, he has to go down the basement.

The illustrations are pretty simple but my son and I both enjoyed them. In this story the dark talks to Laszlo when it comes up to his room. It tells him where he needs to go. If I was a child and “the dark” started talking to me. I would be absolutely terrified. Laszlo doesn’t seem to have a problem though. I would think that if a child is already scared of the dark this could go either way on whether they like it or not.

My son said that he likes the book because at the start of the book Laszlo was afraid of the dark but at the end he wasn’t anymore. He also liked that the basement held the one thing that could actually make the dark go away.

I love any and all things Lemony Snicket (and a lot of other people must too because I was the 4th person on the waiting list at the library.) I had been wanting to read this ever since I saw it had been released so I think this is a good book to bring back Mini Monday on! 

Rating:

Sky High by Germano Zullo
Illustrated by Albertine

Release Date: November 21st 2012

Publisher: Chronicle Books
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 48
Source: Library
Author: Goodreads
Illustrator: Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | The Book Depository
Add it: Goodreads

In this charming illustrated tale, two competing neighbors begin embellishing their houses, only to find themselves caught up in a race to build the tallest, most decadent skyscraper featuring solid gold doors, diamond-encrusted pillars, grand ballrooms, expensive paintings, live tigers, and indoor swimming pools—with consequences inevitable, and not. Kids will love spotting the funny details hidden in this witty take on an age-old moral, while their parents—particularly any who've ever undertaken a remodel—will chuckle with recognition.

This story shows two neighbors that are in competition with each other to see who can build the bigger better house. It get extremely extravagant and somewhat unsteady. On left page you get the house of Agenor-Agobar Poirier de Chepelle. On the right page you get the house of Willigis Kittychy Junior. They start out with modest house but soon they are adding crazy things. Things like Stuffed Bengal tigers, glass chandeliers, moon rocks, and paintings from famous artists.

There is no story in this book. It is just the building of the two houses and some labels pointed to different objects. My son liked this book way more than I thought he would. I thought he would get bored but he was getting so excited pointing to different things. He would say that it wasn’t fair that these people had things that we don’t. haha.  I would say this book would be better suited for children that can read to themselves.

My Rating: