Lights Out [Hardcover]

Arthur Geisert (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

Mama and Papa are firm: lights out at eight o’clock. But their little piglet is afraid of the dark. They say, “If you can figure something out, go ahead.” So the piglet devises an ingenious series of contraptions that allow him to obey his parents while still keeping the light on long enough to fall asleep. Dominoes, tricycles, bowling balls, and baseball bats play a part as each action and reaction leads gradually to the final tug on the lamp’s switch. Follow Arthur Geisert’s detailed etchings as they reveal each step of kinetic wonder leading gradually to lights out.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-4–A small pig creates an ingenious way to turn his light out at 8 p.m., as his parents require, but also to have the time he needs to settle into sleep before the room goes dark. His elaborate, Rube Goldbergian construction will have young readers poring over each page as a sequence of mechanical events unfolds. Only a few words introduce the story, but the visual narrative is lively and complex, showing the movement of each object in turn as the action runs up to the roof, down the walls, through the yard, into the basement, and so on. The porker sinks under the covers and his parents read calmly in the living room while the extraordinary machine does its work around the house. Readers will notice that the plans for this lights-out contraption are tacked up on the walls of the small pig's room, and that he's left some of his tools lying about–a wonderful and sweet attention to detail. Fans of roller-coaster construction, marble runs, and contraption-like machines will be immediately engaged, and the problem-solving humor is for everyone. The fine lines and small scale of Geisert's color art work perfectly to give an effect that is intimate, energetic, and delightful.–Kathie Meizner, Montgomery County Public Libraries, Chevy Chase, MD
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* K-Gr. 3. Like Oink (1991)and Oink Oink (1993), Geisert's newest picture-book treasure is nearly wordless. The pithy opening paragraph poses a conundrum: lights-out is at eight for the young pig hero, but it's hard to fall asleep in a dark, scary room. The rest of the book consists of meticulous etchings of the time-delayed light-switch the youngster constructs, an outrageous contraption depicted at every stage from the initial input of energy (a tug on a string attached to scissors) to the final yank on the light cord. This focuses more on the Rube Goldberg scenario than on any genuine plotline, but really, the machine is story enough. Design-school students will want to study the techniques Geisert uses to represent kinetic processes, and children will delight in tracing each household object's purpose within the elaborate chain reaction. Like Geisert's etchings, an art form that calls forth inventors' blueprints and illustrations from Victorian-era catalogs, this book reminds us to delight in the messy, low-tech route from point A to point B. After all, in a society where computer chips and nanomachines do their work shrouded in techie mystery, perhaps mechanisms that allow force and motion to operate undisguised are the ones that seem most magical of all. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children; None edition (September 26, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618478922
• ISBN-13: 978-0618478927
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #996,574 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Arthur Geisert's unique and exquisite etchings have been widely praised and exhibited at the Chicago Institute of Art, among other museums. His work is regularly selected for the Society of Illustrators', annual Original Art exhibition, and his illustrations are now being collected by the Dubuque Museum of Art. He lives in a converted bank in Bernard, Iowa.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for little inquisitive minds!, July 8, 2009

By 

MGW "Proud mom of two little ones" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lights Out (Hardcover)

Perfect book for little ones who have inquisitive, engineering-based minds. The detailed artwork involved in the main character's intricate "lights out mechanism" keep my son entranced for hours.

5.0 out of 5 stars Bedtime for Rube Goldberg, December 3, 2011

By 

M. Heiss (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lights Out (Hardcover)

This little pig does not like to fall asleep in the dark. SO he rigs up a fancy system that satisfies his need for a night light, and his parents' need for lights out at 8:00.

Nearly wordless story book that makes kids -- even bigger kids -- laugh.