Dorothee de Monfried's Dark Night: Book Review

Dorothee de Monfried's Dark Night

by Armando Ortiz

Dorothee de Monfreid is a French author and illustrator of children’s books. I discovered her work after a student, whom I currently work with, brought it home from the library to read to me. He was pretty excited about reading it, and before opening the book he mentioned that some animals in the story were afraid of a monster, so I was intrigued. My student had already read the book, and now he just wanted to read it to me. The book he’d gotten from the library was, The Dark Night, and as soon as I read the title I thought about batman, but of course there was no batman in the story. There was only a kid named Felix who was on his way home, but gets lost in the woods as night falls. The plot quickly turns and the kid is helped by a smart rabbit that goes out of its way to get Felix back home.

In a quick turn of fortune, while Felix was inside a hollow tree, hiding from the Wolf, Tiger and Crocodile he finds a door. The animals appear one at a time and sit on a stump receiving the warmth of a bonfire, but are scared off by sounds of the other approaching animal.  While hiding inside the tree he finds a door that leads down some stairs. This is where the story turns and becomes entertaining. Though it’s not an Alice in Wonderland type of plot with many twists and turns it does have vague similarities, like a small door that leads somewhere, though not to a separate land, but to a small room. Once inside the small room, and finding no one there, Felix helps himself to the cup of hot cocoa that’s on the table. A rabbit then appears on the scene but doesn’t run away or is not in a hurry to get to some place, instead it quickly asks Felix about his problem and proceeds to help him.

I found the book fresh and fun, because though it deals with fears, these fears are quickly dissipated by the two characters working together. The rabbit sits on Felix’s shoulders and both cover themselves with a black tunic, which the rabbit wears a scary mask. It puts fierce wild animals in a vulnerable position where it becomes possible for strange creatures, wild animals and monsters to be afraid of other monsters. There really isn’t a message that the author intends to send, at least that is my opinion, but instead it tries to convey a type of light hearted take on challenges that people confront. Sometimes challenges aren’t as daunting when confronted, and in fact it might turn out that all one needed to do was ask for help or simply take it one step at a time.

Unlike some children’s books that introduce kids to dinosaurs or have giant animals doing funny things, this one seems to have had a great effect on me. It might have been due to the author’s illustrations, which were simple, with bright colors, yet the characters are funny, naïve, and quite vulnerable despite their fearsome characteristics. Overall the author/artist Monfreid gives me the impression that she has the ability to entertain readers of all ages and backgrounds. Hopefully she keeps publishing more stories and one day publishes something for us adults.