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Afraid of the Dark


Ok, I'll admit it. I am slightly afraid of the dark, even at 30. First off, I don't hear well, and I don't see well without my glasses, so in the dark I feel I'm at a significant disadvantage if a bad guy (or a sneaky chair) were to creep up and get in my way. Also, because I'm a woman, I've been taught to be extra aware of my surroundings and stay out of dark alleyways and the like. So, dark places have never been my favorite, unless it happens to be my bathroom with a steamy bath and some smelly candles...


The little bear in a book I read today has a similar problem (without the scary alleys or vision/hearing impairments). "Afraid of the Dark! by Karen Sapp is a fuzzy, shiny pop up book.
A new moon is rising over the chilly skies where little bear lives - and all the bears are going to spend the night playing and celebrating...all except Little Polar Bear. You see, Little Polar Bear is scared of the dark - and the idea of leaving the cave for the dark night is too terrible to bear (tee hee). However, she soon learns that the night outside is full of beautiful stars and loving friends and family and isn't so scary after all.
Ok - that's the plot. Sort of cute. And the book itself is intriguing because the cover tells you its shiny, fuzzy & a pop up. However, I've got some issues. First of all - Papa Polar Bear goes off and LEAVES Little Polar Bear in the cave when she's too scared to come out! Not in her room in the cave while he's in the living room - he goes out and parties!!! What?! Ok, maybe I'm going a little to far with that. But it did bug me a little. Old Wise Bear goes and convinces Little Polar Bear to come out, and Papa Polar Bear is excited to see her when she finally shows up to the party, but I really think it should have been Papa Bear helping Little Bear face her fears.
And my 2nd issue comes from the fuzzy. I like the feel of tactile books, but I generally don't like that the story and other illustrations are sacrifices for those tactile effects. Rainbow Fish is one of the books that manages to balance the shiny stuff with the beauty of the book. However, Afraid of the Dark! is not. I didn't like that Little Polar Bear was fuzzy only about 1/4 of the time she appears in the book. If you're going to include the fuzz on a character, then include the fuzz on that character consistently. Or leave it off. I did like the shiny stuff (especially in the night scene illustration).
This one is cute and that's about it. You could use it for storytime with a very small group of kids (they'll all want to touch it), but I wouldn't buy it. I'd check it out at the library. What I'd really like to do is give the book a glowing review for the 2-4 year old crowd, but I just can't do it when on top of the issues I wrote above, the last page is a pop-up. In general, pop-ups are for older kids who can manage to view the 3D cutouts without over extending the binding and breaking the pop-up, and who can avoid touching. 2-4 seems a little young for that expectation, and the older crowd would probably like it once, but not as a permanent feature on their bookshelf.
If you want to buy it anyway...
At Barnes & Noble
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Afraid-of-the-Dark/Karen-Sapp/e/9780760792537



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