Harriet's Had Enough! by Elissa Haden Guest and Paul Meisel - review

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6353923-harriet-s-had-enough" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Harriet's Had Enough!" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320451738m/6353923.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6353923-harriet-s-had-enough">Harriet's Had Enough!</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/326300.Elissa_Haden_Guest">Elissa Haden Guest</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1403143371">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Violet Says: 5 Stars.<br>I love this book and ask for it a lot. I love it so much that we've checked it out of the library probably 4 or 5 times by now. I always want my mom and dad to read it to me.<br><br>Dad says: 3 Stars<br>Usually Violet and I are fairly close in our assessments of the books we read. Sometimes she'll like something I find somewhat annoying, or I'll want to read a beautiful book she doesn't care so much about, but for the most part our tastes align nicely (knock on wood). "Harriet's Had Enough" is perhaps our biggest point of disagreements. Violet loves it, while Dad has only come to loosely appreciate it after much deliberation. If I had to guess, maybe Violet's fandom has to do with an appreciation of the depiction of the volatile emotions that trigger Harriet's decision to run away from home? Really who knows why any of us like anything. Part of my issue may be that I work hard to find good books and this was just a random find off a shelf during some library visit long ago. Could I be just as successful picking books at random? Existential crisis time.<br><br>Final Tally: 4 Stars
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The Dark by Lemony Snicket and Jon Klassen - review

The Dark by Lemony Snicket
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Violet Says: 5 Stars
I love this book about Laszlo. Most of the time I just call it "Laszlo." The pictures are very dark but Laszlo looks nice and his house is pretty cool -- kind of like my house. When my Dad makes me pick out a "good night" book to read last, this is usually the one I pick.

Dad Says: 5 Stars
I generally don't like reading books that introduce fears to my children that they don't already have. Like, why do I want to read a book about "why vegetables aren't nasty" if my kids generally eat vegetables without fuss? Likewise, I was initially hesitant to read this book lest Violet be tipped off that some kids out there are afraid of the dark. But the story is told so elegantly that I don't think she even takes away any generalized fears. I think it could actually be a pretty scary book...but we don't read it in a scary way, and it goes over great. There's drama but not suspense. It's thrilling without being terrifying. I'm not super-familiar with the other works of Lemony Snicket, but The Dark is written in such a lovely, subtle, lyrical style that it sets the bar for how text in a children's book ought to be crafted. The art is simultaneously muted yet vibrant, dramatic while still remaining accessible. Really it's an absolute powerhouse home-run book.

We recommend it to everyone!

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