The Dark Is For
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Mar 3, 2026
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- $14.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Magic comes to life when night arrives in this lyrical picture book with gorgeous illustrations by Caldecott Honoree Cindy Derby about embracing the beauty of darkness.
The dark is for flying.
The dark is for shining.
The dark is for dreaming…
Though darkness can be scary, beauty can be found in the stillness of the shadows. And in this stunning tale filled with poetic words and gorgeous art, we celebrate the darkness. From the creatures dancing in the blackness of the deep sea to those that wake when night falls in the forest, we feel the magic come to life.
Jane Kohuth’s musical text and Cindy Derby’s stunning illustrations take us on an unforgettable journey to all the spectacular wonders that can only be found in the darkest of places.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kohuth (Something on the Hill) and Derby (Wheetle) offer up a hymn to the dark's graces in this conceptual work. Loose, expressive multimedia illustrations portray children of various skin tones reveling in a woodsy, hilly landscape as the sun heads out of view. Magnification shifts throughout, from a cinematic opening spread in which a trio lolls under a massive tree on a hot day ("The dark is for calming") to a depiction of a child ecstatically drumming with a thunderhead ("The dark is for storming") to an intimate chrysalis close-up ("The dark is for growing"). When the moon rises, the children become audience members "in the theater of night," where "crickets take up their bows,/ frogs their banjos and flutes./ Coyotes sing." In this work about wrapping oneself in "the dark... like a blanket," the subject isn't absence but presence—its own world of possibilities waiting to be embraced and savored. Ages 4–8. Author's agent: Teresa Kietlinski, Bookmark Literary. Illustrator's agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary.
