Review Detail

BEATRICE LIKES THE DARK is an enchanting picture book about sisterhood and connection. Beatrice likes the dark, spiders, graveyards, and black clothes. However, she does not understand her sister Roo. Roo likes the light, yelling, sunshine, and butterflies. Roo also doesn't understand Beatrice. One night, when Beatrice leaves their bed to go up to the attic and whisper to the spiders, Roo asks her to stay because she is scared of the dark. Instead, Beatrice takes her into the attic to make a Roo Potion to help her like the dark. In the day, Roo helps Beatrice to learn a song that will help her like the light. Importantly, they know they are sisters and they will always love each other.

What I liked: This is such a lovely story about sisterhood, embracing your differences, and the special connections they share. While it becomes clear that Beatrice and Roo are very different, the messaging is really around the fact that despite those differences, they still love and want to help each other. While Beatrice loves the dark, spiders, and the like, it is no deeper than the Halloween style that will charm fellow lovers of the holiday. This is all juxtaposed with the colorful noise of Roo that appears after. Children will love to consider how alike or not they are to each sister, while understanding the love that connects them.

The illustrations are absolutely stunning. The artwork is gorgeous on each page, bringing the story to life with stunning use of color and detail. Both Beatrice and Roo come to life through these sweeping images.

The length of the book is a little long for picture books, but this will work better for older picture book readers and those that appreciate a longer story. As the images are detailed with plenty to visually explore on each page, readers will be happy to stay on each page until they are turned.

What left me wanting more: As a very small thing, some of the text has a really great rhythm as it is read with some repeating words (such as "Beatrice likes the dark dark dark"), but then it falls out of this rhythm in a sentence or two, which can throw the reader off a bit. It's a very small thing, but it would have been cool to keep the rhythm and give it a great verbal flow.

Final verdict: With stunning illustrations and sweet messaging, BEATRICE LIKES THE DARK is a sweeping picture book about sisterhood and celebrating differences. Highly recommend checking this one out!