The book captures the excitement of a power outage on a summer evening in (I think) Brooklyn.

It's a truth universally acknowledged that a blackout brings people together. In this story, everyone in the family is too busy to hang out, but when the power goes out, they spend the evening together looking at the stars, eating ice cream, and playing a game (even when the power comes back on).

The thing I liked best about it is that it almost doesn't need any words. The use of color is also really great. Inside, without electric lights, everything is gray. But when they go outside the night colors just POP. One funny side note is that I'm not sure if the main character is a little girl or a little boy. The dad calls him/her "buddy," which is usually something you call a boy, but the long hair made me think girl at first. Does this matter? Not really. But it might be interesting to see which way kids read it. ( )

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.

Another homeroom read. Students liked it. I loved the illustrations. Though the book is about a blackout, we ended up talking about needing to unplug from our electronics to maintain our family relationships. Was a good chat. ( )

This book is great for k-2 readers and it describes a young child and how everyone is busy till the lights went out and there was a block party in the sky. I really liked this book because it describes a story of a child who's parents are very busy with work or other tasks. ( )