about the book
One hot night in the city… blackout! All power goes out. No more TV for a young boy, no more phone for his sister, no more computer for his mother to work on, and not even the stove for his father to finish cooking dinner. So what’s a family to do?
They haven’t spent much time together lately. In fact, the blackout is kind of nice. They gather around flashlights and candles. Soon the heat in their apartment gets so hot and stifling that they decide to go up to the roof. There they see other members of the apartment community on the roof as well. Other rooftops have other people on them, staring at the stars, and the streets are alive with people having fun, eating ice cream before it melts.
The family decides to play a board game together by candle light, but just when they do, the lights come back on… Wouldn’t it be nice if someone just flipped the switch off again?
about the author/illustrator
John Rocco grew up in Barrington, Rhode Island, working for the shell fishing industry of Narragansett Bay. The work was hard, but raking up clams while standing in a leaky boat is an adventure many young boys might envy.
John went to the Rhode Island School of Design and School of Visual Arts in New York City. His career took off when Whoopi Goldberg approached him to illustrate her book Alice. From there, he jumped did graphic design for several big companies.
He also worked at Walt Disney Imagineering and at Dreamworks, acting as the art director for the highly successful first Shrek movie. He also illustrates the covers of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and creates CGI commercials, special effects, and projects for museums.
John is an extremely focused artist. Every work day, he is in his art studio as soon as he drops his daughter off at school and works long and hard, nearly finishing a painting each day. When writing, he’s up at 5:30 in the morning!
With wife Aileen, daughter Alaya, and their dog Jag, John lives alternately in Brooklyn, where he works, and in upstate Pennsylvania, where the entire family restored a farmhouse built in the 1860s—much to the chagrin of the chipmunks, mice, and six bats that once lived there.
Sources:
Author website
Author interview: Elizabeth Dulemba
Also by John Rocco:
Wonder Curl. Disney-Hyperion. 2015.
Blizzard. Disney-Hyperion Press. 2014.
Fu Finds the Way. Hyperion Press. 2009.
Boy, Were We Wrong about the Solar System by Kathleen V. Kudlinski. Dutton Juvenile. 2008.
Moonpowder. Hyperion Press. 2008.
Wolf! Wolf!. Hyperion Press. 2007.
read more!
Blizzard by John Rocco
A blizzard brings 53 inches of snow in one day to a young boy’s town. People have to climb out of windows just to get outside. Several days pass. When John realizes that people are shut in and need groceries, he makes snowshoes out of tennis rackets and heads out with a sled to bring things to people in need.
In the Tree House by Andrew Larsen
A young boy and his family move to a new house. In the big yard outside is a big tree, and the boy, lonely because he no longer shares a room with his older brother, spends his nights imagining a tree house. Then his father and brother help him build it. That doesn’t repair the boy and his brother’s relationship, unfortunately—that is, until a blackout on a summer night, and the stars come out…
When Charlie McButton Lost Power by Suzanne Collins
Charlie never plays anything but computer games—so one night when a thunderstorm knocks out his city’s power, it is lights out for his beloved headset and controller! Needing something electronic or else he will go crazy, Charlie decides to steal a battery from his little sister’s doll… Will Charlie learn his lesson?