Pete Marlowe’s new picture book tells the fanciful tale of what happens when the power goes out one night at a little girl’s home. Soon after her parents tuck her into bed for the night, Mallory sees a flash of light outside, hears a crash, and sneaks outside to investigate. There she meets the Power Boy, whom she joins on a tour of the night sky and a mission to restore the power.

The Vancouver-based Marlowe, author of The Trailer Park Princesses and One Arabian Morning, has created another intrepid heroine with this book. The language of the narrative parallels Mallory’s high spirits, with plenty of onomatopoeic words and phrases, synesthetic descriptions, and poetic repetition. There is also a pleasing circularity to the narrative, which concludes as it begins, with Mallory dancing in the kitchen.

Strangely, though, the story’s content has an ad-libbed feel to it, as if a five-year-old were making up the origins of the meteorological elements as she went along in what seems, to the adult listener, like an ever-expanding list.

The acrylic illustrations by Edmonton-based artist Cindy Revell are filled with whimsical detail and have a contemporary look slightly reminiscent of the work of American Lane Smith and England’s Clare Mackie. The nightscapes contain recurring touches of humour, like the cat that comes along on the journey and looks on haughtily as it cleans itself. The pictures are slightly flawed, however, by the sharp faces of the people. The children’s eyes are particularly unsettling, with their sharp outlines and heavy underlining, which gives them a slightly jaded look, as if they’re older people in disguise.