Picture book critique: "There's A Nightmare in my Closet"

In 1968, author and illustrator Mercer Mayer wrote a children’s book about his childhood fears of monsters in his room. Twenty years later, I read this book for the first time, and There’s A Nightmare In My Closet soon became one of my favorite books — helping me conquer my nighttime fears. Today Mayer is known for his “Little Critter” series books, an entirely different illustrated concept and look to his earlier titles.

Though There’s A Nightmare In My Closet brings humor to the sensitive subject of fearing a monster or seeing a monster in a closet, I think that parents should be aware of possibly “introducing” the idea of monsters to a child if reading this book to them. I would say the appropriate age group would be five to ten years old, when most kids have either heard of monsters or have had scary dreams already.

The title accurately reflects the story. You know right away without opening the book that it’s about nightmares. You also get a glimpse of the “nightmare” in the closet. It’s interesting that the boy riding his tricycle on the cover looks annoyed to see the monster peeking out of the closet. It’s almost like the monster is scared of the boy. I think this depiction is part of the humor and bravery Mayer intended to show.

Mayer’s illustration style is realistic using pen and ink to depict the boy, the monster, and the objects in the bedroom. You can distinctly see the pen lines throughout the objects. The book holds interest mostly on what will be illustrated on the following pages. Will we see the monster? And what will it look like? The composition of the monster dominates the other characters and objects when depicted on each page.

The illustration is a bigger focus than the text of the picture book, meaning the illustrations alone could tell the story, as the last spread portrays. In this spread you see the monster sleeping in the bed with the boy and another monster peeking its head out of the closet. The previous page had indicated that his bed wasn’t big enough for three.

The text and illustrations complement each other well. The illustrations do repeat on most pages what the text is stating, but because it’s showing action, I think it works well. Most pages are one line long, so there’s opportunity for the reader to use inflection on sentences like, “As soon as the room was dark, I heard him creeping toward me.”

What I appreciate most about There’s A Nightmare In My Closet is Mayer’s harmony with the use of only five colors throughout the pages. White, brown, green, and orange are used in various shades. In some parts there is black to indicate darkness. It fits the mood of the story, but is also light enough to not feel like you’re reading a scary book. 

Board book evaluation Part 1: “Fire Truck” by Salina Yoon

The book, Fire Truck, by Salina Yoon is a great example of a board book for a baby or toddler, which depicts several important things that characterize it as a good book for this age group. The small, square sized, 12-page board book is easy for little hands to handle. As Kathleen Horning states in From Cover to Cover, young children may enjoy being dazzled by the latest bold venture in picture book art, but at the same time they may ask to return again and again. Some characterizations that parents, or those reading these books, may look for include board books that:

1) Positively reflect and depict a baby or toddlers world. In Fire Truck, the story depicts a fireman rescuing a cat, putting out a fire, a school group visiting a firehouse, and some opportunity for a parent to explain safety — whether the child is indoors or outdoors.

2) Reflect racial and ethnic diversity. The people illustrated in the board book are young and old, have different color hair, a woman firefighter who appears to be Asian, and an African American male firefighter. The children — two girls and one boy — each have different color hair and hairstyles.

3) Reflect a child’s surroundings and expands a small child’s world. The board book shows children what a fire truck looks like, its purpose, and the job of being a fire fighter, and where a fire fighter works — including the gear they wear and what they are used for.

Besides these three main characterizations, there are several other factors that work together to create an aesthetic whole (Horning, From Cover to Cover, 87). Early learning concepts such as color, shapes, and sounds can be depicted from the chosen art and text to tell the story.