Lights Out!

Counselor Jim orders, "Lights out!" but the six Camp Badger Scouts cannot get to sleep and see and hear all sorts of terrifying things in the dark, despite Counselor Jim's reassurances. By the author-illustrator of Simpson Snail Sings.

From Publishers Weekly

Kids who suspect that scary creatures lurk in the night will find kindred, er, spirits in the fidgety characters here. It's bedtime at Camp Badger, and Counselor Jim is encouraging six boys to get some shut-eye. But every time he turns off the lights, his charges protest that monsters are coming to get them. Indeed, a cutaway view of the boys' cabin reveals a toothy, tentacled beast concealed under the floor ("It comes awake in the dark"). The moon's reflection looks like "an eyeball on the ceiling"; and bats are predictably mistaken for vampires. Himmelman's (Wanted: Perfect Parents) text and cartoony illustrations offer not so much a story as a series of imagined scenarios. Rather than presenting these situations as purely frightful, however, Himmelman demonstrates that some fear of the dark is normal-and can be kind of silly. Ages 4-8. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3?Poor Counselor Jim. He's got six Badger Scouts who just can't settle down and go to sleep. Every time he turns off the cabin lights, one of the boys shouts at him to turn them back on. Each child harbors a different fear?from a lion lurking outside to a monster under the floor to an eyeball on the ceiling to a ravenous mosquito in the room to vampires surrounding the outhouse. Jim's rational explanations don't do much to calm the campers. Predictably enough, after the tolerant young man loses his patience, the children nestle into their sleeping bags with smiles on their faces, and he returns to his own cabin only to be hounded by their demons. The full-color cartoon illustrations are more humorous than frightening?oddly enough, the wordless picture showing Jim cowering in bed is the scariest one. While there is some humor in both text and art, and though young readers can certainly identify with the situation, the book on the whole isn't that creepy or that funny?in fact, it's a bit tedious.?Vanessa Elder, School Library JournalCopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 5^-7. In this hilarious look at camp life, six Badger Scouts with overactive imaginations are convinced danger awaits them whenever the lights go out. First, Michael imagines a lion is waiting until they are asleep to leap through the window and eat them, "starting with the biggest and saving the smallest for dessert!" It's downhill from there, as each time the lights go off, the boys imagine some creature lurking about. Counselor Jim tries to convince the boys they are safe, but in a surprise ending, he's shown cowering under the covers imagining a room filled with the very creatures that the boys have described in such vivid detail. The dialogue is humorous and imaginative, and Himmelman's cartoonlike illustrations are realistic enough to accurately portray animals such as a lion and a wolf yet lighthearted enough not to be too scary. Lauren Peterson

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