A creak on the floor, a shadow on the wall, a half opened cupboard door; children find a way to conjure the scariest scenarios in the dark of night. Explaining that monsters don’t skulk in the shadows and beasts don’t wait under the bed can become a nightly ritual for parents, especially when little imaginations tend to run into overdrive. But what if we can explain it all and put their fears to rest with a simple, quirky bedtime story?
Sunshine Coast author/illustrator Dr Dean Jacobs has turned on the lights to expose what scares children at night, presenting it all in a rhyming, realistically illustrated bedtime story that children will love to read, both visually and linguistically. The beautiful, highly detailed illustrations are packed with visual cues and quirky information that children will love to discover. Dr Jacobs explains, “The illustrated book is evolving. No longer is it acceptable for illustrations to simply reflect the words of a story; now, the illustrations must say much more than that, creating an alternate narrative to challenge what is written. This interplay between the two forms of narrative, written and visual, encourages the reader to deeply consider what they are seeing, which could be a contradiction to what they are reading. It sets up an interesting and more dynamic interaction.”

Is there a scare in there? explores the overactive imagination of children and helps to seek an explanation for what goes bump in the night. The story follows a child through the many common scary scenarios that children face on a nightly basis; What waits under the bed? What is causing the floorboards to creak? What hides in the closet? But can the child put his fears to bed?
Is there a scare in there? Is available for purchase online through www.deanjacobs.com.au
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