REVIEWS FOR BLACKOUT
By Meghan Cox Gurdon
Children often find the dark frightening, but a power outage when you're safe at home can create darkness of a cozier and giddier kind. In "Blackout" (Disney/Hyperion, 40 pages, $16.99), a picture book for children ages 4-8, author/illustrator John Rocco evokes the strangeness and awe of a city when the lights go out. "It started out as a normal summer night. The city was loud and hot. Inside, everyone was busy," the young narrator explains, as we see a well-lit street in what might be Brooklyn. Disappointingly, everyone is much too busy. Big sister is yakking on the phone, Dad is cooking, and Mom is tapping on her computer. So the youngest member glumly goes off alone to play a videogame. But everything changes when the power fails, taking the appliances and gadgets along with it. Hot and sticky in the apartment, the family goes up to the roof and discovers a huge, beautiful sky filled with stars—"And people!" the boy tells us. "It was a block party in the sky." In silhouette we see neighbors on other rooftops grilling on barbecues, dining by candlelight, dancing to an ancient wind-up Victrola and just gazing at the velvety heavens. No one is busy at all—until the lights come on and ruin everything. It's at this point that our narrator daringly flicks the lights off again. Soon the family is happily gathered in the kitchen with the board game he had wanted them to play in the first place. A blackout has the capacity to draw an atomized family together—something it has in common with this appealing picture book.
NEW YORK TIMES Sunday Book Review
CHILDREN'S BOOKS
When New York City Went Dark
By RICK MOODY
Published: June 3, 2011
If you believe that books set in your neighborhood will somehow help your child love to read, then you would be lucky these days to be a parent in Brooklyn. Books for children by Brooklyn authors now match the similarly numberless books by Brooklyn-based authors for grown-ups.
BLACKOUT
Written and illustrated by John Rocco
40 pp. Disney/Hyperion Books. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8)
And into this crowded field comes John Rocco's "Blackout," apparently set in Dumbo or another nearby locale that includes the Brooklyn Bridge in its deep space. "Blackout," as the title suggests, concerns a young boy whose classically nuclear family is busy with other stuff, at least until the sudden failure of the electrical grid. Remember: the quintessential New York City blackout of 1977 featured a lot of looting and disorderly conduct. Rocco's blackout seems to concern a lightly fictionalized version of the blackout of 2003. In this friendlier crisis, much of New York City (and, presumably, the rest of the Northeast) spread into the streets to relax, and was rewarded by restaurants intent on giving away what might otherwise go bad.
The 2003 blackout started at 4:11 in the afternoon, which would make impossible the beautiful and nearly monochromatic tonalities of Rocco's nighttime illustrations (rarely has a children's book featured so much unalloyed navy and black). Into the dramatic darkness, the unnamed protagonist and his family head up to the roof, where for once the stars are visible.
"Blackout" is about the restoration of a sense of community, not only within a family but in the larger context of a neighborhood. Once power is restored, our protagonist lobbies to turn off the lights electively, in order to preserve and continue with the experience of being together.
Rocco's parable of life off the grid is warm and sweet; I despite being a little scared of the dark. My one minor criticism is that the airbrushed, stylish pages resemble a graphic novel more than a conventional picture book. Graphic novel visual syntax — the panels, the labels, the bubbles of text — assumes a visual fluency not all children will have. But this is a quibble.
An argument for turning off devices and spending more time with people (even if by candlelight), and for making an effort to gaze at a clearer night sky are fine suggestions, which kids will greet with their elastic capacity for wonder. Even if they're Brooklyn kids, used to thinking that all the books in the world are about their home.
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Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Blackout
John Rocco, Disney-Hyperion, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4231-2190-9
Rocco's sublime account of a city blackout reveals a bittersweet truth: it sometimes takes a crisis to bring a family together. In a series of graphic novel–style panels, a small child tries to convince family members to play a board game one hot summer night, but they're all too busy. When the lights go out, though, the neighborhood comes alive and the whole family drifts up to the roof to look at the stars: "It was a block party in the sky." Rocco (Fu Finds the Way) gets everything right: the father's pained, sheepish smile when he says he has no time to play; the velvety dark and glowing candlelight of the blackout (as well as the sense of magic that can accompany one); and the final solution to the problem of a too-busy family (a private blackout, courtesy of a light switch). The high-energy visuals that characterize Rocco's other work get dialed back a little. In the most poignant spread, the family sits on the stoop, eating ice cream: "And no one was busy at all." It's a rare event these days. Ages 4–8. (May)
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Kirkus (starred review)
BLACKOUT
Author: Rocco, John
Illustrator: Rocco, John
"It started out as a normal summer night"—until the lights go out, citywide. When it gets "too hot and sticky" inside their apartment (no fans or AC tonight), one busy family (mom, dad, two girls and a black cat) heads to the rooftop of their building, where they find light via stars and a block party "in the sky." Other parties are happening down on the street, too. When the lights come back on, everything returns to normal, except for this family, which continues to enjoy the dark. The plot line, conveyed with just a few sentences, is simple enough, but the dramatic illustrations illuminate the story. Beginning with the intriguing cover—the silhouetted family on their rooftop under a vast, dark-blue sky dotted with Starry Night–type swirls, black is used as both a backdrop and a highlighter. Page composition effectively intermingles boxed pages and panels with double-page spreads, generating action. Brilliantly designed, with comic bits such as a portrait of Edison on a wall and the cat running from a hand shadow of a dog. Not all young readers will have experienced a blackout, but this engaging snapshot could easily have them wishing for one. (Picture book. 5-8)
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Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books
Rocco, John
Blackout; written and illus. by John Rocco.
On a hot night in the city, everyone in the family is busy with their
own activities—too busy to play with the young girl hoping for a partner
in a board game. When the electricity suddenly goes out, however, the
busy family slows down; at first "huddled around flashlights and
candles" together, they're then driven by the heat to the
apartment-building roof, where they discover a power-free block party in
progress and a sky full of stars usually bleached out by city glow. Then
there's another party down in the street, where the philosophical
ice-cream vendor gives her treats away and the firefighters open up a
hydrant, so it's a bit of a disappointment when the lights come back on.
While the real-life version of this would probably just send the
wireheads in the family to their smart phones, it's an enticing premise
nonetheless. Author-illustrator Rocco effectively employs the text as
voiceover narration ("So we went up and up and up to the rooftop") for
the drama that unfolds visually, and the simple, straightforward words,
in font recalling In the Night Kitchen and crawled across the full-bleed
art or neatly boxed, play their supporting role tactfully. Rocco
interestingly goes for solidity rather than ethereality with his visual
style: the family is a robust little crew, with authentic touches in
demeanor (older sister has a sulky preteen slouch) and in their behavior
in the dark (a lot of shadow-puppetry in the flashlight's glow, some
opportunistic handholding by Mom and Dad). Colors are understandably
shadowy (textured with intriguingly geometric hatching lines), but
there's a clever balance of cool and warm in the spreads, and the
inventive perspectives and panel sequences keep the energy high despite
the late hour. This will be a nice reassurance for kids afraid of the
dark, and most audiences will simply relish the notion of a spontaneous
old-timey party. DS
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Booklist
Blackout.
Rocco, John (Author) , Rocco, John (Illustrator)
It's a scenario many kids are probably all too familiar with: a young boy wants to play, but older sis is
gabbing on the phone, Mom is busy on the computer, and Dad is making dinner. When the power goes out,
however, the family comes together to make shadow puppets on the wall, join the neighbors on the roof to
admire the stars, and even head out front to the most idyllic city street you'll ever see. All good things
come to an end, though. The power comes back on, and everyone immediately slips back into walled-off
family units—though the walls are a bit weaker now. Compositionally, this picture book bears a strong
resemblance to Maurice Sendak's In the Night Kitchen (1970), breaking some of the pages into comicsstyle
panels and running a boxed narrative up top. Rocco's lustrous, animation-quality artwork somehow
manages to get richer the darker it gets, and features one of the silkiest skies since Van Gogh's Starry
Night. A versatile reminder to take a break and invest in quality together time once in a while.
— Ian Chipman
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A SPECIAL SUMMER NIGHT
REVIEW By ROBIN SMITH
ohn Rocco takes a child's-eye view of one special summer night in Blackout. At first glance, this captivating picture book seems to offer a straightforward view of a night when a family is forced to move away from their electronic life to a simpler time, a time when families played board games and enjoyed each other's company. Taking a closer look at the illustrations does for the reader just what the blackout does for the family in the story, allowing us to slow down and appreciate the moment all the more.
Let's start with the very first image—even before the title page. Here is the main character, a little girl with a screen flickering behind her. Given her dour expression, it appears that the screen isn't bringing her much joy. Moving to the first pages of the book, we see a busy street in Brooklyn, beneath the bridge. Careful observers will recognize that same girl again in a brownstone window. In other tiny windows, we spot four of the main characters, busy with their work and too busy for the little girl, who wants to play a board game.
In a beautiful moment, the lights of the city slowly dim, prompting the startled child to summon help with a cry of "MOM!" The family adjourns to the roof for a joyous time with neighbors under the starry night (which looks a lot like the Van Gogh painting of the same name). Then it's back to the street for free ice cream from the ice cream vendor. As the story unfolds, astute readers will note slight changes in perspective and light that let the reader observe the passage of time, but in a slowed-down world without electricity.
Adults know that a power outage can be a pain in the neck, but to a child, it is just another adventure. In Rocco's beautifully told story, a blackout brings one family together and allows a child to see her city in a whole new light . . . a flashlight.
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