Bottner and Emberley shift focus from reading to storytelling in this wickedly funny companion to Miss Brooks Loves Books (and I Don’t). A power outage makes it too dark to read during Story Nook time, so Miss Brooks guides her students through the art of storytelling. Initially reluctant to invent a story, heroine Missy eventually unspools a tale about an ogre whose escaped snake makes quick work of Missy’s “exasperating” neighbor, Billy Toomey: “It wraps around him and squeezes so hard, his eyes pop out.” While introducing the ideas of plot, characters, problem-solving, and “satisfying endings,” these collaborators demonstrate in no uncertain terms just how much real-life power stories can have. Ages 5–9. (Aug.)
