It is a night when everyone is snug and cosy inside. Brrr … it is a frosty night outside.
Suddenly, snap! The lights went out! It is very dark, but dad manages to light a match to shed some light. Candles are lit and the house comes back to life. Mama looks out the window to discover the whole street has lost power.
As they walk around the house all is quiet and shadows are thrown on the walls. They imagine themselves to be explorers, giving each other piggybacks, singing songs like brave explorers do.
Just as they think they might as well go to bed they hear the sound of music. They rug up and head out into to the cold night air, their breath ‘white and cloudy in the air’. Here they find their neighbours, some of whom they have never met before. Mrs Martinez plays her guitar and together they sing all sorts of songs, some of which have them tapping and swaying. They all dance with happiness.
As the night comes to a close suddenly, snap! The lights come back on.
The illustrations in this book beautifully complement the story. Even though the night is chilly, they are full of warmth and exude the feelings of love. Although it is dark out, the little lights among the neighbours make this a place of safety and happiness.
Inspired by the times of COVID lockdowns, When the Lights Went Out celebrates the joy of our communities, the comfort of having a connection with those who live around us. It reminds us that an event like a little scary blackout, can become a moment of pure simplicity and joyful celebration of being together and safe. It will also bring back to life memories for adults of blackouts from childhood. Memorable and happy times can come of something, especially if we share it together.
Reviewed by Jane Stephens
Age Guide 4+
Teachers’ Resource – When the Lights Went Out
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lian Tanner has worked as a teacher, a tourist bus driver, a freelance journalist, a juggler, an editor and a professional actor. She has been dynamited while scuba diving and arrested while busking. She once spent a week in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, hunting for a Japanese soldier left over from the Second World War. It took her a while to realise that this was all preparation for becoming a writer. Nowadays Lian lives by the sea in southern Tasmania. She is the author of the internationally bestselling The Keepers series, the award-winning junior fiction A Clue for Clara and the picture book Ella and the Ocean, which won the 2020 NSW Premier’s Literary Award.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
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