Alexandra Junge

This book is focused on a common fear amongst kids: the dark. It goes into the imagination of a little girl with breathtaking pictures and illustrations. The main theme in this book is that what lurks in the dark isn't always scary, sometimes it just takes a little light to point that out. This has amazing illustrations. It makes the monsters in the dark big and scary, but when the light shines on them they are small and nonthreatening. The images also show personification of the moon and the son. It gives life to the story through great illustration. Illustrations, Bedtime Story, Children's Literature.… (mehr)

Originally published in German as Im Dunkeln: Eine Gutenachtgeschichte (literally, "In the Darkness: A Good-Night Story"), this picture-book addresses a common childhood experience in an imaginative and thoughtful way. Beginning when its young heroine, Laura, is just getting into bed, and wondering to herself why it has to get dark every night, the narrative describes just what a world "without night" would be like, listing all the things - from seeing the stars to dreaming - that we would miss.

Although the text felt a little stiff to me - something I attributed to issues of translation, rather than Junge's writing - I enjoyed A Night-Time Tale, both for its message that the dark is something to embrace, rather than fear (something that brings many blessings), and for its distinctive artwork. The fantastic vistas perfectly capture the surreal quality of the dream-world that Junge references in her text. I particularly liked the elongated and bent "figures" of the personified sun and moon! All in all, a sweet little bedtime book, with a flavor of wildness - or strangeness, if you will - running through it, and giving it added flavor.… (mehr)