Blackout by John Rocco Ages 4-8 40 pages Hyperion May 2011 Hardcover     The family featured in this picture book lives in the big city, and one warm night they experience a blackout. When all the electricity goes off, they discover that it is not the end of the world—in fact, it is rather nice. Using flashlights and candles to provide light, family members make silhouettes on the wall and get out an old board game to play. When it gets too warm indoors, they go up on the roof, where they can see the stars in the dark sky. Eventually they go down to the street level and join their neighbors sitting on their front steps, watching the children play on the sidewalk. When the lights come back on, everything returns to normal—almost. At least one family, though, decides candlelight is pretty cool, and they leave their lights off for awhile. A blackout need not be a scary event, as this book points out. For children who may never have experienced the total loss of electricity, this book provides some options as to how to spend the time until the lights come back on.     web reviews   Bob Walch/2011 for curled up with a good kid's book   For grown-up fiction, nonfiction and speculative fiction book reviews, visit our sister site Curled Up With a Good Book (www.curledup.com)