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Blackout

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One hot summer night in the city, all the power goes out. The TV shuts off and a boy wails, "Mommm!" His sister can no longer use the phone, Mom can't work on her computer, and Dad can't finish cooking dinner. What's a family to do? When they go up to the roof to escape the heat, they find the lights--in stars that can be seen for a change--and so many neighbors it's like a block party in the sky! On the street below, people are having just as much fun--talking, rollerblading, and eating ice cream before it melts. The boy and his family enjoy being not so busy for once. They even have time to play a board game together. When the electricity is restored, everything can go back to normal . . . but not everyone likes normal. The boy switches off the lights, and out comes the board game again.

Using a combination of panels and full bleed illustrations that move from color to black-and-white and back to color, John Rocco shows that if we are willing to put our cares aside for a while, there is party potential in a summer blackout.

40 pages, Hardcover

First published May 24, 2011

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About the author

John Rocco

73 books132 followers
Rocco studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design and School of Visual Arts in New York City. He is the author of four acclaimed books for children: Wolf! Wolf!, winner of the Borders Original Voices Award for best picture book; Moonpowder, part of the Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators; Fu Finds the Way, and Blackout, a New York Times Best Book of the Year and winner of a 2012 Caldecott Honor. Rocco also illustrated Whoopi Goldberg‘s Alice and the covers for Rick Riordan‘s multi-million copy internationally bestselling series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Kane Chronicles, and The Heroes of Olympus. Most recently, Rocco illustrated the fantasy fairy tale, The Flint Heart, written by Katherine Paterson and her husband, John.
me with samFor many years Rocco has been an art director in the entertainment industry, both in the US and abroad. At Dreamworks, Rocco was the pre-production art director on the top-grossing animated film Shrek. For Walt Disney Imagineering, he designed attractions at Disney’s Epcot and served as art director for DisneyQuest, a virtual reality theme park in Downtown Disney. Rocco has worked with computer graphics pioneer Robert Abel, the creator of some of the first CGI commercials and special effects, and contributed to several museum projects including Newseum in Washington D.C. and Paul Allen‘s Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.
Rocco lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Aileen and their daughter, Alaya.

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5 stars
4,775 (44%)
4 stars
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3 stars
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153 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,099 reviews
Profile Image for Calista.
4,391 reviews31.3k followers
August 7, 2019
I loved this story about modern life. This beginning book is about a kid who wants to play a game with his family, but everyone is so busy talking on phones, watching TV or doing work on a computer. The kid is up in their room playing a video game to not be bored when the lights go out in the big city at night in August, so it’s hot out.

The family collects in the kitchen and it’s hot, so they go up on the roof where, for once the stars shine. I love this page with these beautiful stars shining over the silhouette of the rooftops of the city and all these people are up on the roof being a community. Then, the family goes down to the street and a street party is happening with candles and other things. People come together. It has a feeling of fun. Then the lights come back on and people go back to their lives.

I am searching for community right now and I think this book showcases how important community is to us.

The kids thought this was a fun book. They liked doing things in the candle light pictures, but the niece got nervous about no power. “Can the power really go out like that?” she asked. I told her it’s possible. That seemed to scare her. She didn’t like the sound of that. Still, she thought this was a good story. The nephew liked it too. He thought it would be fun to do things by candlelight. I told him we could always turn out the lights and use candles anyway, so he wants to do that one night. We’ll see how it goes. They both gave this 3 stars.
Profile Image for Trudi.
615 reviews1,625 followers
July 17, 2013

Fantastic illustrations, and a sweet engaging story with a wonderful message about turning off the devices in this tech'ed out life to simply "be" with each other.

A refreshing, optimistic examination of a New York City blackout far removed from what really happened that one time in 1977.

And don't forget this movie:



Profile Image for Manybooks.
3,324 reviews104 followers
May 20, 2023
John Rocco's Caldecott Honour winning Blackout presents an entertaining (engagingly, expressively illustrated) way of demomstrating to children that a universal, that a city-wide power outage does not necessarily have to become some huge and inherently problematic, potentially destructive fiasco, and that it can actually be both fun and even a good family and community togetherness tool (if of course the power does manage to come back on quickly, and in good time, something that might have been worth mentioning as an authorial aside at the back).

Now John Rocco's featured illustrations are indeed simply spectacular, and while generally I would actually tend to consider them a bit too dark hued for my personal aesthetic tastes, for the topic, for the story presented in and by Blackout, namely a large summer night power failure in an urban metropolis, they are indeed and in fact the perfect complement, the perfect descriptive vision, showing how the main and featured family (and actually the entire neighbourhood) not only cope, but even manage to enjoy the lights-out situation (from chatting, playing shadow puppets, going up on the roof and realising that without the constant artificial lights, the sky is lit with and by stars to a fun and spontaneous summertime street party). Highly recommended (and not just for its entertainment value either, as Blackout also celebrates family time as being fun time and that one does not always have to be electronically connected, which is glowingly, and with no pun intended on my part, demonstrated in the last two illustrative spreads, where even though the lights have now come back on, the family decides to not simply return to phone calls, computers, cooking, but to play a board game and by candlelight at that).
Profile Image for Kathryn.
4,499 reviews
July 18, 2013
4.5 STARS

I really enjoyed this story about a family so plugged into technology they don't have time to play with the youngest child... Until a blackout forces everyone in the city to get creative. The resulting imagination and social activity is great. I also love some of the little details in the illustrations like how sympathetic Thomas Edison looks from his portrait looking down at the little girl just before the blackout ;-)
Profile Image for Lisa Vegan.
2,826 reviews1,273 followers
September 20, 2014
Oh, I just got such a kick out of this book! Funny and sweet and quirky and heartwarming!

The pictures are wonderful, from the cover on. At first I thought the cover and the premise would be my favorite parts of the book, but I quickly warmed up to the entire story.

I did feel sorry for the scared cat and the scared dog each in a single frame. But the stars were heavenly, and the neighborhood camaraderie was heartwarming and fun. And the solution at the end was genius. I suppose this is a bit of a message book, but it’s told in such an enjoyable manner and has such great pictures, for me it was pure fun.

The story is wonderfully fun to read aloud (in blackouts or with full lighting) and also a good book for early readers to read aloud.

The book is large and the illustrations have a “big” feel, even on those pages where they’re broken up and there are multiple pictures on a page. They’re great, even though some are lovely and some are rather cartoonish.

Well, and I have always enjoyed playing board, card, etc. games, so I felt for the child who couldn’t find anyone to play with them, until a couple different things happened. I love the line: “…but not everyone likes normal.” This story is both a quiet type and a bit of a rollicking ride, and I really enjoyed it.

4 ½ stars
Profile Image for Steph Sinclair.
461 reviews11.3k followers
December 15, 2011

My daughter and I really enjoyed this one. The illustrations were beautiful and eye catching. It's very different from the illustrations I'm used to seeing in children's books because the technique used gives the pictures great depth making them very vivid. One thing I noticed from the start was that the family featured in the story was multi-racial. That was pretty cool. This is yet another must buy for the kids' library.
Profile Image for Candace.
919 reviews
May 31, 2019
A child wants to play a board game, but everyone in his family is too busy. That is until the lights go out. The family comes together in the blackness of night. They venture up on the roof and see the stars. Other people have come up on the roof and it is a party-type atmosphere. The family goes down stairs to the neighborhood, where they find free ice cream and kids playing in the water from the fire hydrant. When the lights come back on, they family decides to turn them off, light a candle and gather around the table to play a board game.

The illustrations are what captures the reader's attention. We follow the family in full frames, multiple frames and focusing in and out shots. The text follows the family, but also the wider view of the neighborhood. This book would be good for explaining blackouts and coming together as a family.
Profile Image for Laima.
207 reviews
October 2, 2013
What a wonderful book! This is a very simple story about a blackout in a large and noisy city.
A child wants attention but everyone in his family is too busy. When the power suddenly goes out there is only darkness. All the noise stops and the family comes together to spend time on the roof enjoying the stars and on the neighbourhood street.
This book really makes a point of how wired and noisy our lives are. We need to take time out to enjoy the natural landscape and company of others.
The illustrations are gorgeous and the words are simple. Together they make for a terrific read for children ages 4 to 8.
Profile Image for Katie Fitzgerald.
Author 6 books215 followers
December 20, 2016
This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.

This picture book opens with a full-page illustration of a little girl looking bored, staring out the window. This nameless little girl, who is the youngest in her family, is lonely because everyone is too busy to play with her. Her sister chats on the phone, her mother taps away on the computer, and her father is busy in the kitchen, stirring a pot on the stove. She decides to keep herself company with a video game, but just as she settles in, all the lights go out! From that moment, things change in the little girl's household. In the silence, she and her family huddle together and by the light of candles and flashlights, climb to the roof. The neighbors join in, and soon there is "A block party in the sky" and another one in the street below, where a local business gives away free ice cream, a firefighter allows children to use the fire hydrant as a sprinkler, and a couple plays and sings music.

"No one was busy at all," observes the girl. Everyone has time for her because they are disconnected from their other duties and distractions. Without technology and electricity to keep them occupied, everyone must turn to one another for entertainment, support, comfort, and enjoyment, a habit one family may just not want to lose even after the blackout is over.

There is very little text in this book, sometimes not even a full sentence on a page. The illustration style really lends itself to comparisons with graphic novels, as it uses a mix of large and small panels, as well as different font faces, sizes, and colors to convey not just narration, but dialogue and sounds as well. The panels show the slow movement of time from moment to moment, and also zoom in and out appropriately to highlight intimate family moments as well as larger community-oriented happenings.

As with many of my favorite illustrators (Marla Frazee and Sophie Blackall, namely), Rocco's pictures give us lots to look at and discover that isn't expressly stated on the page. One of my favorite moments early on in the book occurs when we see the family's apartment building at considerable distance on one page, and then zoom in on their windows more closely on the next. Flipping back and forth between the two pages shows that the same scenes are depicted on each page, just with different levels of focus. I love that the illustrations tell most of the family's story, while the text focuses more on the universality of the blackout experience.

I love the way this story isn't just about what happens during a blackout, but about the way disconnecting technology and electricity for one evening brought a family close together. The illustrations are beautiful - they show how many colors make up the dark - blues, blacks, grays, greens - and how bright even the stars can seem when nothing else is lit up. This would be a great story to have on hand to read to kids during a power outage, and it's also a neat way to share the experience with kids who haven't yet experienced a blackout, especially city kids whose entire lives are lit by streetlamps and store signs. I think this is also a great, positive title for combating fear of the dark, and for empowering younger siblings who often feel left out or inferior.
Profile Image for Leslie.
810 reviews34 followers
June 8, 2011
"If you are a fan of John Rocco’s work, or have yet to become one, Blackout is lovely book to check out, regardless of your age. However, it is one of those picture books to be read to or with someone, because it is all about spending time together. The most tragic image would be the 6-year-old sitting on the couch reading this while their family members are plugged-in elsewhere, too busy or distracted."

[...]

"Blackout is done more in the style of a graphic novel in movement and format; even the windows of a building become panels. This is exciting for those who are interested in preparing the young one for such shelves; a potential complaint for more traditional picture book readers. The eye is ready to take everything in, make a study of Rocco’s artwork. I think the format works to focus the sequence of the story which is heavily illustrated and it minds the text, spare as it is.

"Blackout has incredible relevancy. It is a book about a family getting caught up in their own pursuits, in their individual rooms, in their nuclear home. I like that the setting isn’t a sunshine-inspired jaunt to the park or market where everyone is radiantly garbed and smiling and energetic with Spring. In a book where time spent together as family and/or community is ultimately our choice, the dark is a perfect setting. At an hour where one can be alone or excused to their own devices most easily, a decision to be in company doing family building activities is especially poignant."

[...]

"I like that the sense of loneliness on the part of the boy isn’t because he doesn’t have something he could be doing—it isn’t from boredom, or even a lack of potential companionship as the cat is constantly by his side. Whether one is thinking about their own home or community, the idea of being alone is a terrible feeling—made worse when the lights go out."

L @ omphaloskepsis
http://contemplatrix.wordpress.com/20...
Profile Image for Rebecca.
4,663 reviews176 followers
June 11, 2011
On a hot summer night in the city, everyone is "much too busy" to play a board game with a bored little boy. He resigns himself to videogames until...the power goes out! As the family is plunged into darkness and forced to give up their evening of cooking/phoning/computing/videogaming, a new side of the city is seen, one where there are block parties in the sky, free ice cream on the street, and a new view of how to spend an evening at home with your family.

I loved John Rocco's artwork in Moonpowder, so I was excited to see this book. His transistion from color to grayscale during the blackout, and the use of twinkling lights, is lovely, as are the pages with comics-like panels to show action. A couple confusions kept this from being a 5-star book for me (I thought the protagonist was a girl; why did the blackout initially seem to disappear all the people except the main family?; on the page with two images of the lightswitch, why does the switch not move?).

Still and all, this is one of my favorite new picture books. Even with the panels, I think it could work as a small group read-aloud. I especially love the unremarked-upon instances of diversity, like the mixed-race family and what I took to be a gay couple carrying a flashlight, the one guy's hand affectionately on the other's shoulder.
Profile Image for Krista the Krazy Kataloguer.
3,873 reviews307 followers
February 14, 2012
I liked this Caldecott Honor Book much better than this year's winner. The illustrations give it the feel of a graphic novel, but the simple sentences make the story easy to read for beginners. A boy (I thought it was a girl until the end of the book) wants one of his family members to play a game with him, but everyone is too busy. However, on this hot summer night the lights go out all over the city, which means his family can't do all the things they'd been doing, things which required electricity. The boy persuades them to gather around the kitchen table with candles for light to play his game. Suddenly the lights come back on. Will everyone now abandon the game? I like the idea that you don't need to have electricity to have fun. We're so dependent on power for our games and TV and computers that we've forgotten about all the games and books and other activities that don't need power to enjoy. The book also sends a message about spending time together as a family. Great book--highly recommended!
Profile Image for Sara.
28 reviews3 followers
October 3, 2012
Blackout is a story about a family in the middle of a blackout in their town; as the book opens, the reader sees that the son of the family wants to spend time with his family and play a board game. However, since everyone is so busy with technology (sister is on the phone, mother is on the computer, and the father is cooking), nobody wants to play with him. When the blackout occurs, the family realizes that it is fun to just do the simple things with the family without worrying about technology or what needs to be done. In the end, the family joins a block party and they have fun as a family again. The valuable lesson that these characters learned is that they need to make time to spend with family. The message in this book is one that we could all learn from; as humans, we tend to get so busy with our everyday lives and sometimes, we just need to take the time to enjoy our families and forget about everything else. Moreover, the illustrations are wonderful and full of detail; they are very well done.
Profile Image for Tatiana.
839 reviews60 followers
March 16, 2013
It was a normal summer night in the city. Hot, noisy, with everyone doing their own thing. But then, the lights go out and everything changes: families, neighbors, the whole city comes together. Forced to unplug, people turn to each other, playing board games, and even climbing up to the roof to see nature's natural lights--the stars. When the lights come back on, things go back to normal, but not everyone likes normal.

In the classroom, I would use this as a concept book: things that scare us, what to do when the lights go out, why it's good to put the video games away sometimes. The illustrations are a true highlight, and I would expect nothing less from a Caldecott Honor Book. The format is interesting as well. I have a few second graders who are hooked on the idea of graphic novels, and the illustrations borrow some of those elements, like captions and boxed-in pictures.
Profile Image for Clare.
1,460 reviews316 followers
December 22, 2011
A brilliant book! The illustrations are contemporary and fun, so it's a surprise to find such simple but powerful wisdom at the heart of this story.

Everyone is too absorbed in their own things to play a board game with a little girl who's looking for company. But then there's a blackout, and everything buzzing and shining just stops, and it is quiet and dark.

And suddenly people take notice of those around them, their family, neighbours and friends. They eat free ice cream and sing and play the guitar, and rediscover the joy of spending time with others.

As powerful for adults as for the children who read it.

Reviewed for www.GoodReadingGuide.com
Profile Image for Jim Erekson.
602 reviews34 followers
February 17, 2013
Almost fooled me! The book's well-drawn graphic novel style, spare pacing, and enchanting representation of a family in a power outage just about masked the story's attempt to teach us all a lesson. Once more, the fact that I agree with the message doesn't help. I don't think the sermon is in general a genre of literature. And this is the second (or third) book in two weeks to try to tell me to just turn off the lights and enjoy life without gadgets.
Profile Image for Michael.
815 reviews91 followers
January 13, 2014
This story has beautiful artwork and pages, a diverse cast, a fun storyline, and a heartfelt and worthwhile message to convey. It's almost 5 stars for me, but I tend to reserve that rating for books that give me a deeper emotional experience. I liked the combination of intimate dark spaces and infinite vast sky and city, and the moral of the story was touching; but it was more entertaining than emotionally moving.
Profile Image for Jennifer (JenIsNotaBookSnob).
986 reviews13 followers
November 28, 2017
Cute book about a family who is spending a lot of time with their electronic devices and then the power goes out and they spend time as a family and time with neighbors. At the end, they realized they enjoyed their time spent together as a family and they re-enact the blackout to have family time together.

Well illustrated and cute.
Profile Image for Alex  Baugh.
1,954 reviews117 followers
August 14, 2019
This has always been one of my favorite summertime books and I love sharing it with young readers. Set in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, it's "a normal summer night." It's loud and it's hot and inside one apartment, a family is busy doing their own solitary thing and no one has any inclination to play a game with the young boy in this family of four. So he heads upstairs with his dog and plays a video game. I love the picture of Thomas Edison giving side-eye as the kid plays his solitary game. It's like he's thinking "this isn't what I had in mind for electricity." Ironically, in the next image, the lights suddenly go out - all over the city. With nothing working, the family is thrown together, and decide to go up to the roof to cool off. And to their surprise, there were people having a blackout block party up there, under a sky full of stars. Downstairs on the street, the same thing is happening - the fire hydrant is turned by the FDNY, there is free ice cream and people are enjoying each others company. The young boy and his family sit on the stoop, eating ice cream, and enjoying each other's company. Blackouts don't always bring out the best in people, but in this blackout, in this neighborhood, it certainly does. But then, just as suddenly as they went off, the light come back on. Is this then end of family time? Not if our young protagonist has his way, and it turns out to be a simple matter of turning off the lights. The language in the story is simple and extraordinarily sparse, relying on the illustrations to really carry the events along. And the rich, full color illustrations are done in good-sized graphic novel panels, ranging from small to full page images. This is an important book that reminds us to sometimes put down our devices, and enjoy each others company.
Profile Image for Luann.
1,284 reviews119 followers
February 15, 2012
This has a very "comic book" feel to it - even though only a few of the pages are split into panels. Many of the illustrations are full-page or even two-page spreads. But the style of the illustrations and the font of the text contribute to the comic book feel.

I chuckled over many fun details in the illustrations. I especially loved all the shadow puppets on the walls and the cat who often showed up as a giant shadow in the flashlight spotlight. This was a nice choice for a Caldecott Honor this year.

I loved how the family came together when the power went out - and stayed together when encouraged by the youngest in the family. The power goes out a lot where I live, but we live out of town where our neighbors aren't very close geographically. We often end up calling around to neighbors when the power goes out to make sure we aren't the only ones in the dark! I've never thought much about what it's like during a power outage in a city like New York, and now I feel like I know at least a bit of what it would be like.

I'm with other reviewers who said they thought the youngest in the family was a girl. There were really no clues to say one way or the other except when his dad calls him "buddy." Then I looked at the boy's face and thought, "Well, I guess he could be a boy, just with really long hair." Then I read the book synopsis which calls him a boy. I would have liked more of a clue earlier so that I wasn't thinking wrong the entire time I was reading the book.
Profile Image for Linda Lipko.
1,904 reviews48 followers
August 14, 2015
Do you remember times gone by when life was not so chaotic? Do you remember a time when your family spent quality time together free of technology and its obsession? This gem of a children's illustrated book and a Caldecott Honor, is wonderfully illustrated and focuses on the importance of being together.

When the power goes out across New York City on a summer night, a family comes together. Playing board games, going to the top of the roof to gaze at stars, and then walking downstairs and interacting with neighbors all lend to the fact that when technology takes over, we lose each other.

Simply being forced to forgo the cell phones, the tv and technology, equates to remembering that you had a life with others before all this nonsense consumed us.
Profile Image for Ms. B.
3,302 reviews55 followers
January 29, 2012
Similar to Nancy Carlson's Take Time to Relax, this book explores what happens when an act of God occurs and a family learns to enjoy each other's company. In Blackout, it's summer instead of winter. Instead of a snowstorm, there's a power outage. Both books (and I'm sure there are more) teach us that it's ok to not be busy all the time.
Profile Image for Laura.
1,434 reviews241 followers
January 30, 2012
It’s amazing how one event, chance, or occurrence can bring everyone together. This story about finding fun and wonder in the dark will pull readers of all ages right in with big, beautiful, clear, vibrant pictures.

Turn of the lights! You might be surprised by what you find in the dark. :)


1/29/12
Profile Image for Darinda.
8,605 reviews151 followers
August 14, 2017
A young boy who wants to spend time with his family, but everyone is too busy... until a blackout. The bold artwork drew me in. A heartwarming story about the importance of spending time with family.
Profile Image for Scott.
20 reviews
October 23, 2021
John Rocco’s Caldecott Honor Book, Blackout, tells the story of a busy urban family brought together by a power outage. The illustrations are rich and engaging. The characters are reflective of a racially diverse urban community. The entire story takes place at night with the artist masterfully using the contrasting light and dark colors. The bright white and yellow electric light shows the routine busyness of everyday life. Each character is indepently focused in on separate tasks. When the power goes out, the family draws together around the warm candle light and glowing flashlight. The heat drives the family from their closed off apartment to a rooftop block party under the spectacular stars and down to the street where their neighbors have gathered just for fun. When the power returns, things quickly return to normal - except for the family that realizes they didn’t like normal so much.
I can see using this book with P-2 students to explore family, community, and technology. I like the idea of discussing how technology changes things - solving some problems but also creating new ones. You could pair this with a history lesson about the invention of electricity. There’s even a portrait of Thomas Edison hiding in the book to help make a connection.
40 reviews
September 2, 2017
Summary: The story “Blackout” follows a young girl in the busy city experiencing her first blackout. Once all the lights go out and everyone isn’t busy with their everyday lives the family realizes how important it is to take time for each other. They go up to the roof and stare at the stars together and realize that they don’t need power to have time together that is meaningful.

Evaluation: I really liked the storyline of “Blackout” and how important it is to take time away from the Internet and everything else that consumes our time to spend it with the people we care about. The story was very relatable and it will reach all readers in that way.

Teaching Idea: A way to incorporate this into teaching would be talking to kids about technology and how it takes up so much of our time. After this I would remind the students how important it is to take time each day where we spend it with the people that we care about and away from technology. We would then do a writing activity where students could talk about things they like to do other than play video games and draw a picture with it.
February 4, 2020
Genre: Children’s Fiction/Comic Book
Awards: Caldecott Honor Award
Audience: Ages 4-8
One random night, the power in an entire city goes out and now the family the story focuses on is forced to rely on each other for support. It allows them to sit back and really understand the importance of family and spending time together.

A. It fits in the category because the illustrations are made up of as a comic book, where you mostly have to make sense of the story by analyzing the pictures.
B. The emphasis on the large usage of light colors when the lights are still on, to the transition of the very dark pages when the light goes out makes the reader feel the emotions the characters feel. It can also allow them to reminisce on a time their power went out at home.
C. I would use the book to teach a concept of how to be prepared when the lights go out. Also, I can emphasize the importance of spending time with family, even if things aren’t going wrong.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,099 reviews

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