The cover of The Blackout by Luis Amavisca and illustrator Francesc Rovira (due October 2026, read via an online reader copy) makes the book look like it would be a slightly different and more mature story. Instead, it is a sweet picture book (that I hope is not oversized as it has an unusual look to the actual cover illustration) about how family—even found family, who is literally in the dark—makes everything a little better. The illustrations are perhaps my favorite part of things as they keep the sweet tone and add a bit of spunk with the colors, minimal but expressive details and the clever elements to them.
Due to the cover illustration, I worry that this means the book will be a rectangle shape. This is because the cover shows the apartment building and how tall it looks that our characters live in. There are several floors that each family lives in. The bottom floor is the entrance. The second floor is where our narrator (Paula, her dad and dog Luna) lives, the third floor is where one of pf her best friends lives (an immigrant family), the fourth floor another one of her friends and his non-traditional family unit, and finally the top floor is an elderly woman that the children love visiting and helping.
But regardless of the shape or size of the book, this story is about how to have a community where you might least expect it and when the power goes out, you can learn how to make your own fun. This is a modern story with multi racial families, ages and genders. It is modern with its talk of digital disconnection, and in particular cellphones. It is also Western, as it is set in Spain, but not American, making the tone different from what you might be used to, but not inaccessible.
