This week with kindergarten and pre-school, the Learning Leopard Library had some fun in the dark! Inspired by John Rocco’s Caldecott Honor book Blackout, we got together for a very special storytime.

Blackout is set in New York City on a hot summer night. Told in a mixture of picture book and graphic novel, this story follows a young boy who can’t seem to get his family to put down their cell phones, computers, and other distractions to spend some time together. But when the power goes out and the family is forced to huddle close around candles and flashlights, they realize that maybe it’s not such a bad thing to power down every once in awhile.

Inspired by Rocco’s pictures and the message of time together without any distractions, I decided that we needed a blackout of our own! So when Rocco’s city lost its lights, so did we. A flashlight and some faux candles gave us enough light to finish the story together. Under the twinkling stars (the library’s Twilight Turtle was the perfect tool for the occasion), we used our imaginations to have a super fun rooftop blackout party, and even sing twinkle twinkle little star.

The photo above shows one of Johnson’s preschool classes sharing stories under the stars by faux candlelight during one of our special library blackouts.