Books like There's a Nightmare in My Closet
By Mercer Mayer
There's a Nightmare in My Closet gets that every kid needs the closet door checked, then turns the whole thing funny by having the boy march in with his toy gun and just deal with it. The nightmare ends up more pitiful than scary, which is exactly the trick. The books below play that same game with bedtime fears.
Same brush with real danger, but this one lives in a garden instead of a closet. The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter makes disobedience the whole plot.
The closet monster turns out gentle once faced. Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans skips the fear entirely and just hands you a fearless girl already.
Both books turn a scary creature into someone your kid roots for. Zog by Julia Donaldson adds a rhyme that practically reads itself out loud.
Same trick of turning monsters into something a kid can face down. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak lets the wildness spill out of the bedroom entirely.
The fear here isn't under the bed, it's other kids at school. Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes is the one for that particular ache.
If the closet book's dry, matter-of-fact humor works on your kid, Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág has that same deadpan silliness, just with cats instead of monsters.
Less nighttime silliness, more quiet reassurance about feeling not-enough. Reach for You Are Special by Max Lucado when your kid needs comfort rather than a laugh.
The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone shares the same heart for courage and the same big feelings around fear with There's a Nightmare in My Closet.
Save this one for a kid who's outgrown closet monsters. The scares in Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China by Ed Young run a little sharper and older.
No monster, no dark, just a lonely bear waiting to be chosen. Corduroy by Don Freeman keeps the tenderness and drops the fright entirely.
Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky shares that heartwarming mood and the same big feelings around fear with There's a Nightmare in My Closet.
For the kid who needed that closet monster to be a friend, The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco asks the same question about a stuffed rabbit and love.
