John Rocco takes a child’s-eye view of one special summer night in Blackout. At first glance, this captivating picture book seems to offer a straightforward view of a night when a family is forced to move away from their electronic life to a simpler time, a time when families played board games and enjoyed each other’s company. Taking a closer look at the illustrations does for the reader just what the blackout does for the family in the story, allowing us to slow down and appreciate the moment all the more.

Let’s start with the very first image—even before the title page. Here is the main character, a little girl with a screen flickering behind her. Given her dour expression, it appears that the screen isn’t bringing her much joy. Moving to the first pages of the book, we see a busy street in Brooklyn, beneath the bridge. Careful observers will recognize that same girl again in a brownstone window. In other tiny windows, we spot four of the main characters, busy with their work and too busy for the little girl, who wants to play a board game.

In a beautiful moment, the lights of the city slowly dim, prompting the startled child to summon help with a cry of “MOM!” The family adjourns to the roof for a joyous time with neighbors under the starry night (which looks a lot like the Van Gogh painting of the same name). Then it’s back to the street for free ice cream from the ice cream vendor. As the story unfolds, astute readers will note slight changes in perspective and light that let the reader observe the passage of time, but in a slowed-down world without electricity.

Adults know that a power outage can be a pain in the neck, but to a child, it is just another adventure. In Rocco’s beautifully told story, a blackout brings one family together and allows a child to see her city in a whole new light . . . a flashlight.

Sheep are supposed to be easy to herd, but not for Farmer McFitt, whose slumbers have allowed 10 mischievous sheep to escape and scatter all across town. If he doesn’t wake up in time to catch them, he’ll never get the sheep sheared and their wool knitted. The biggest problem is that wherever the sheep go, one of them disappears! At the zoo, 10 sheep meet a kangaroo, and later, at the circus, only nine take bows from high wires. Their numbers dwindle as they play baseball (or rather, eat the field), see a movie (eat too much popcorn), visit the library (eat the books) and so much more.

Hide and Sheep is a rhyming read-aloud counting book with hilarious adventures from the moment the sheep pole-vault the farmer’s gate. Author Andrea Beaty includes plenty of humor that will appeal to adults, and illustrator Bill Mayer makes the scenes come alive with vintage pop art-style pen-and-ink artwork. One of the best treats in the book is a sheep visit to an art museum, where the walls are lined with Bill Mayer sheep-ified originals: Dali wilted sheepskin clocks, Monet lily pads and a wooly van Gogh self-portrait.

Hide and Sheep, prankish and droll, is the perfect book to read (perhaps even twice) just before bedtime. Counting these lively sheep is sure to make even the rowdiest little ones drift off to sleep, just like Farmer McFitt.

The world feels completely free when one little girl climbs aboard a swing and suddenly finds herself flying in a world of colors, as though the different hues were a bright galaxy from her imagination. With each pass through the air, the lanky girl with bony ankles experiences a brand new color, until she finally leaps off the swing, soaring effortlessly for what is only a few seconds but feels infinite.

In her first-person narration, the girl invites readers to “Look at me, follow me into the curl of a breeze,” and her entire body seems to become that curl, along with the wispy wings of the bluebirds who have answered her call. Never once does Tricia Tusa’s delightful new picture book Follow Me really come back to earth, and at the end of her flight, the girl twirls (never walks) her way through purple and green until reaching her doorstep.

Tusa, who has illustrated more than 50 books, tips a hat to Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Swing” by allowing a child to slip into unhindered imagination. For someone with light synesthesia (such as myself), who thinks of people and music in colors, Follow Me’s smudgy, earthy palette is particularly satisfying in blurring the connections between colors and objects. The imperfect illustrations feel lovingly hand-done and personal, a look that Tusa achieved through an etching process, pressing one color at a time.

The poetic meanderings of Follow Me capture one little swinging girl as she takes in the colors of the sky, soaring across “that easy sway of blue.” Busy children might want more action in the story, but thoughtful kids will recognize the adventure that comes from a cloud-nine relationship between you and the world around you.

If you read this fantastic new picture book to children, I suggest you put off telling them who the knobby-kneed girl on the title page really is. Then, when you’ve read Me . . . Jane from beginning to end, they’ll want to hear every word of the author’s note to learn more about the book’s title character, Jane Goodall.

Patrick McDonnell’s loving illustrations celebrate Jane’s rather solitary but happy childhood. Whether she is reading in a tree or happily stretched out in the grass, this little girl is in love with and curious about the natural world. Accompanied by Jubilee, her stuffed chimpanzee, Jane observes squirrels, shells, leaves and birds, and even hides in the hay to see an egg being laid. The book’s font has a hand-stamped look, and what appear to be rubber-stamped pictures float lightly beneath the text, just like the replicated pages from Jane’s childhood journal.

Children will enjoy looking at Jane’s handwriting and puzzles, her observations and research. Her passions are so obvious and she loves nature so much that it is not at all surprising that this little schoolgirl would one day be recognized by the Queen of England for her work with animals. Some might have seen Jane’s dreams as ridiculously big, but, happily for us, she did indeed go on to live in the jungles of Africa, like another Jane in Tarzan of the Apes.

Little girls—and this big one, too—will be inspired by the childhood of Jane Goodall and will, every time they read this charming volume, get a little misty-eyed at the book’s closing photograph, which shows Jane holding her hand out to a baby chimp. It’s a perfect image of “Dr. Jane,” reaching out to animals and inspiring young naturalists everywhere.

Whether parents are reading it with their little one scrunched up next to them or a teacher is reading to an audience of preschoolers, Denise Fleming’s Shout! Shout It Out!, invites participation and yes, SHOUTING! While it’s not a great choice for bedtime, the book will serve as an irresistible waker-upper after naptime or anytime when energy is flagging.

Fleming’s signature pulp painting is the perfect medium for Shout! Shout It Out! The art is bright and deeply saturated, and the pages are the right size for the big images and generously sized typeface. The repeated text, “SHOUT! SHOUT! Shout it out!” is not what kids are used to hearing in school or at home, so it might take a page or two for the reader to realize that volume is absolutely allowed. Starting with numbers and moving to the ABCs, Fleming taps into concepts that most children know. I especially love the colored balloons being wrangled by a toothy little girl with gorgeous curly hair and a pink hair bow. Readers will also love the pages of animals and familiar vehicles.

Each page is hosted by a small mouse who whispers little tidbits like “purple is my favorite color” and “M is for mouse” that can only be seen by looking closely. This little touch masterfully encourages children to reread—nothing like searching for a hidden critter to bring a smile to the young reader. Learning to read has never been more fun or easier.

“READ! Read it again!” will surely be the refrain heard anywhere this book is shared. After repeated readings, young readers will be able to read (or shout) the words all by themselves.

You know the feeling you have when you look at a book and you’re sure that you’re going to love the story? That’s what happened to me when I saw Say Hello to Zorro, written and illustrated by Carter Goodrich, the talented author, character designer (Ratatouille, anyone?) and New Yorker cover illustrator. The two dogs on the book’s cover—one, Mister Bud, nervously glancing at the other, Zorro, who is staring straight at the reader, daring her to flinch—just beg us to turn the page.

Mister Bud loves his life, but he especially loves his schedule: “1. Wake up time 2. Biscuit, then a walk time 3. Nap time 4. Shift-position-and-nap-some-more time 5. Wait and watch time 6. Greet and make a fuss time . . . 10. Movie, then bed time.” Every day is the same for this all-snout dog and that’s just the way he likes it.

But one day, at greet-and-make-a-fuss time, things change. A new dog, Zorro, is joining the family. Zorro, a Pug with fierce eyes, a curly tail and stubby legs, is ready to stake out his territory in the house. Mister Bud is not ready to concede defeat so easily and his first encounter with Zorro is one of name-calling and growling, leading to reluctant resignation. Soon the dogs realize that they do have something in common: the same schedule!

Goodrich’s affecting watercolors do these canines proud. Mister Bud, more nose than dog, and Zorro, his mouth edged with a black moustache, bound and sleep through these pages with true dog-like energy. The owner’s verbal contributions, in a light green handwritten typeface, float nearly unnoticed by the dogs and the reader, but serve to remind us all of the proper place of humans in the dogs’ schedule.

The pacing and humor of this charming picture book makes it an easy one to read over and over. This is a winner for dog lovers everywhere (and of any age) and I, for one, am hoping for a sequel.

There are many things that Cloudette loves about being small: the adorable nicknames, the ability to fit into small spaces and the way she can really hide during a game of cloud hide and seek. But when it comes to helping out the big clouds during storms or doing important cloud jobs, Cloudette doesn’t feel needed. At all. It is only when Cloudette ends up all by herself after a particularly violent thunderstorm that she discovers “the big and important things a little cloud can do.”

Normally I can live without little life-lesson books about fitting in and finding your bliss, but Cloudette is just so darn cute and the story so droll that I had to give it another peek. Tom Lichtenheld’s watercolor and ink illustrations, especially the sweetly smiling Cloudette, draw the young reader right in, and the side chatter from the other clouds (“Hi, pipsqueak!” or “Prodigious precipitation, pipsqueak!”) will keep adults smiling.

In Cloudette’s struggle to produce rain, she grew larger and grayer and “shook her behind until it made a little rumbling sound”—an image that will amuse little readers and remind grownups of toddlers’ frequent frustrations. Little people who feel small and want to do important things will be inspired by Cloudette and will cheer when she finds her own pond-making mission. 

A curious young bunny hops out for an adventure, all by himself, in Little White Rabbit, the latest creation from Caldecott-winning author-illustrator Kevin Henkes. The rabbit wonders about everything. Like the children who will read about him, he takes the time to notice his surroundings and imagines: What would it be like to be different? What would it be like to be green? Tall? Unable to move? Able to flutter and fly?

When Little White Rabbit is simply being a rabbit, he safely fits in the middle of a square green frame, doing normal rabbity things. With a deft page turn, Henkes shows the full scale of Rabbit’s imagination. The frames are gone when Rabbit’s prodigious imagination pushes the action across an entire two-page spread, not even leaving room for words!

Like Kitten’s First Full Moon, winner of the 2005 Caldecott Medal,this newest Henkes offering invites very young readers to slow down and think their way into a character’s imagination. When Rabbit is green, all the green critters are literally bug-eyed in surprise. A crowd of normal-sized bunnies circle the giant rabbit who is so tall that the trees bend under his weight. My favorite pages, a nod to William Steig’s Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, show time passing when Rabbit imagines “what it would be like not to be able to move.” Rabbit is a stone, portrayed in four panels showing bright sun, rain, sunset and moon bathing him in his stillness.

But, though Rabbit might wonder about all these things, in the end, he finds himself sharing a warm nose kiss with his parent, who loves Rabbit best of all. Ahhhh.

What parent hasn’t had a child beg for a pet, with heartfelt promises to feed it, walk it and even clean up after it? In Paul Schmid’s A Pet for Petunia, his first solo venture as author and illustrator, one spunky little girl pleads and pleads (“Pleeeease?”) for her own pet. But not for a cat, a dog, a hamster, a rabbit or even a goldfish. Petunia wants a skunk!

Set against a white background and rendered in pencil and spare splashes of purple and gold watercolors, Petunia makes her case, telling her parents that skunks have cute little noses and stripes (just like her oversized striped dress). “Petunia tells anyone who will listen just how perfectly awesome skunks are.” Her tenacity and adorable expressions, accompanied by an equally irresistible skunk stuffed animal she takes everywhere, can be convincing—but not enough for her parents, who sum up their response with two words: “They stink.”

Petunia knows what really stinks, though: her parents’ reluctance, especially after they wouldn’t let her get a python either. She runs away to the woods, where she crosses paths with an actual skunk who indeed gives off the worst smell Petunia has ever encountered. The girl immediately runs back home, but in an amusing twist, she reaffirms her love for “Awesomely STINKY” skunks. And she also decides that her stuffed animal skunk is the right choice until, walking by the woods again, she spies a prickly animal that would make a perfect pet. Children and adult readers alike will find humor in Petunia’s predicament.

Considering all the snow that’s fallen recently in many parts of the country, some parents might be yearning to get rid of snowmen, snow shovels and everything related to winter. But the popular picture book team of Caralyn and Mark Buehner has an entirely different idea—wouldn’t it be wonderful, they ask, to have snowmen around all year long?

Expanding on the theme that produced two previous best-selling picture books, Snowmen at Night and Snowmen at Christmas, the Buehners portray snowmen not just as decorative yard art, but as warm and appealing characters. In Snowmen All Year, a young boy muses about the disappointment of seeing his newly built snowman end up as a puddle. What if the snowman could magically hang around for a whole year of activities?

Caralyn Buehner’s peppy rhyming couplets take the snowman through four seasons of fun, from flying a kite in spring to trick-or-treating on Halloween (and, hey, he doesn’t even need a costume!). The snowman’s human pal is delighted to have his rotund friend for company, especially when the two take a daring ride on a roller coaster.

Mark Buehner’s richly colored paintings feature a softly glowing snowman and vibrant background scenes in which the shapes of tiny creatures are concealed (a Buehner trademark). Children will also enjoy searching for the pair of ducks that appears on every spread, often in unexpected spots.

Snowmen All Year is a sweet and amusing treat that the youngest listeners will want to hear read aloud again and again. Who knows—it might even make the next blizzard an appealing event for the whole family.

Illustrator Loren Long teams up with President Barack Obama to create a picture book tribute to several notable Americans in the form of a letter from the First Father to his daughters. The text is minimal and begins with questions for Malia and Sasha—“Have I told you lately how wonderful you are? How the sound of your feet running from afar brings dancing rhythms to my day?”

Other questions for the girls introduce discussions of famous figures from throughout the nation’s history. “Have I told you that you are creative?” the president asks his daughters, eliciting a brief comment about painter Georgia O’Keeffe. Some of those included here are obvious choices: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Helen Keller, Neil Armstrong, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Jackie Robinson. Other memorable Americans highlighted might surprise the reader: Billie Holiday, Albert Einstein, Sitting Bull, Maya Lin, Jane Addams and Cesar Chavez are also on the list.

Loren Long’s tall and thin stylized illustrations are perfect for the images of the Obama children and the president and serve to add visual interest to the spare text. Especially memorable are the images of O’Keeffe painting an enormous flower, Maya Lin reflected in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the young Chavez addressing farm workers. On the opposite page are smaller images of Malia and Sasha, joined by images of the famous folk carrying the tools of their given work. The final spread is a joyful collection of all sorts of American children with young versions of the famous standing in the front row.

While folks might argue about who was included or not in this selection of 13 American icons, there is little doubt that children will enjoy learning a little about them through the illustrated pages and the biographical notes at the end. Families or teachers looking for an accessible introduction to a diverse slice of notable Americans will enjoy this collection.

Obama wrote the book before becoming president and is donating profits from its publication to the families of injured service members.