The Dark

Susan Perks, formerly a teacher and librarian, is a travel agent in
Thompson, Manitoba.

This is a fanciful tale about a small, dark thing, which the little girl, Jule Ann, calls the “dark.” This dark becomes larger with each shadow that it eats. After a while it becomes “as big as a hill” and settles down on the roof of Jule Ann’s house and goes to sleep, thus blocking the sunlight. Jule Ann comes up with an ingenious way of capturing the dark and getting rid of it.

It is an entertaining and amusing story for young children. The illustrations are accurate and brightly-coloured. This story could possibly be used in a unit on shadows, but I would have misgivings about the last line: “All the shadows took a whole week to grow again” (p.30); “day” would be more accurate.

I also question using the word “dark” as a noun in this context, without capitalizing it. Interestingly, there is only one place where it is capitalized (p.16). Why was it not capitalized throughout the story?

The pages are thick and the softcover edition seems quite durable. Overall, the book is fanciful and entertaining, and children enjoy it.