Mercer Mayer

"Childhood fear of the dark and the resulting exercise in imaginative exaggeration are given that special Mercer Mayer treatment in this dryly humorous fantasy." -School Library Journal

There's a Nightmare in My Closet

Sarah Sammis

Mostly it's Harriet who likes Mercer Mayer's books but There's a Nightmare in My Closet has a monster and a happy ending, two things that make for a perfect book for him.

There's a Nightmare in My Closet reminds me of Monsters Inc. if it were told from Boo's point of view. The setting is a boy's room at night. He's convinced there's a monster in his closet who wants to scare him. Just like Boo, he decides to confront his fear.

Rather than entering the monster's world, this boy turns the tables and scares the monster as he comes out of the closet. In Monsters Inc. when a child is no longer afraid his door is sealed and he's never bothered again. Here though, the poor monster is so frightened to death he bursts into tears.

Sean took the crying scene to heart. He has a soft spot for monsters and sees them as more than just creatures to make stories scary. Before even turning the page Sean jumped to the same conclusion as the boy in the book. The monster needed comforting and might actually be a friend instead of a foe.

There's a Nightmare in My Closet

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