THE NIGHT THE LIGHTS WENT OUT

Thacher is a little boy with a problem. He cannot decide what he wants to be when he grows up — a fireman, an engineer, or a pioneer. But the night of the big blizzard when all the lights go out and nothing works, not the television, the clocks, or Thacher's electric train, the problem is solved. Thacher wants to be an "electricianeer" so that when the lights go out, he can fix them. The author's bold black and yellow illustrations are particularly successful in the feeling of light and dark which they convey, and the experience of one night by candlelight should stack up to a real-life adventure in the mind of the young reader.