Benny and Penny in Lights Out!: Toon Level 2

"Framed in sequential panels that occasionally expand to full-page or double-spread scenes, the art features a pair of big-eared, bright-eyed mites (plus the occasional fictive dinosaur) in cozy domestic settings atmospherically illuminated by the glow of lamps, Benny's flashlight and the moon. As in this popular series' earlier episodes, dialogue in unobtrusive balloons furnishes the only text, but the action is easy to follow, and Hayes provides plenty of finely drawn visual cues to the characters’ feelings. Another outing positively radiant with child appeal, featuring a pair of close…

"A simple but engaging style that young readers will find charming. The series continues to show a fun look at timeless tales of big brothers and little sisters and the wonder of imagination."

"I'm sure kids will like it."

"Hayes' colored pencil work — and kudos to Toon for including information in each book’s indicia about the art techniques used — is softly welcoming. It gives the mice's fur texture; they look fluffy and pettable."

"Hayes's illustrations are completely enchanting."

"It was adorable!"—A Patchwork of Books

"In the mouse siblings' fourth book ( Benny and Penny in the Big No-No! won a Geisel Award in 2010), Hayes brings beginning readers into the magic hour that precedes lights-out for the night. Sliding from bedtime story–inspired flights of imagination to flashlight-enabled frights to a secret journey outside to rescue a favorite toy from the dark of the playhouse, Benny and li'l sis Penny exhaust themselves as only children know how. As with all TOON books, the pure charm of the story has the added bonus of introducing and richly contextualizing word recognition for the kind of terms kids need to know, like pirates, spooky, BURP!, and princess dinosaur (a perfect rendition of sibling compromise). Hayes' sense of the bouncing rhythms of children's play, grasp of sibling social dynamics in true-to-life scenarios, and especially his adorably huggable, crayon-colored characters have made him the standard-bearer of early-reader comics."