When I got home yesterday afternoon, Gretchen told me the iPad wouldn’t start. I figured the battery self-drained and I left it charging while Jeanne and I went to the playground to play for a bit. When I got back, the iPad still wouldn’t start. I tried the home button and the power button. No luck. I was about to give up and resigned to returning it to the shop. As one last effort, I searched for “ipad won’t start” and I saw this YouTube link. I followed the instructions: I connected the iPad to the MacBook, started iTunes, pressed the home and power button at the same time for 10 seconds, released the power button, and continued pressing the home buttons for 10 more seconds. Then I clicked the restore button on iTunes. The iPad finally started up, restored, and synced.
Whew again!
UPDATE: Looks like there’s a whole procedure from Apple for reviving an iPad that is not responding.