Book Review: The Night Monster

The Night Monster by Sushree Mishra

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I adore how dark and creepy the illustrations are in this book. Sanket Pethkar, illustrator, has done a wonderful job of making the pages feel like the shadows and curtains are moving. I felt like I would hear the owl hooting as Sushree Mishra, writer, talks about why the night is the way it is.
This is a clever little story in which a little boy 'talks', via letters, to what he believes to be the night monster. Through these letters our boy realizes it's not the night that is scary necessarily; but all the things that happen at night combined together. Of course there is no actual night monster to write back and instead the boy's older sister is writing the letters that are found in a locked box each morning.

I love that The Night Monster touches on a simple, yet very true concept, that darkness is scary to us humans. You can try to deny it but at some point in our lives we've all been afraid of darkness. Whether that be at night, a darkness in our heads or hearts. And so it's good to remind ourselves of what that darkness actually is. Reactions to individual stimuli. I think the psychology here has a lot of depth and I love how a simple children's book is able to dispel a fear of the dark so simply.
I am definitely going to get this book if I see it in the wild and add it to the collection as I can imagine gifting it to a child who is struggling to sleep because of fear.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

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