Come on, Rain! by Karen Hesse illustrated by Jon J Muth

Tuesday Treasure

There's nothing quite like a rainstorm to cool an oppressive heat wave. It makes you want to go out in the rain in your bathing suit and dance around. With delicate image-rich prose and beautiful water colors that seem to blur in the heat and rain, Karen Hesse and Jon Muth bring these feelings to life. You can feel the heaviness of the heat, the impatient anticipation right before it rains, and then the joyful relief as the world finally cools off. Carle Museum Friday Favourite

I want to begin with some text quotes which give the flavour of this writing:

Heat
I am sizzling like a hot potato
Heat wavers off tar patches in the broiling alleyway.
A creeper of hope circles 'round my bones.
The smell of hot tar and garbage bullies the air

Rain
It freckles our feet, glazes our toes.
tromping through puddles,
romping and reeling in the moisty green air
under trinkets of silver rain.

It has not rained for three long hot weeks. Tessie can smell rain is coming. The oppression is amplified by the wilting plants, the sweat on her mamma's clothes and the needle stuck on the phonograph "playing the same notes over and over." When the rain finally begins Tessie and all her friends grab their swimmers and dance in the raindrops. Each of the mammas join them. I love the way their dresses match the swimmers of the little girls.

When I re-read this glorious book this week I found myself in tears. Not because this is a sad book but because the students in my former school can no longer experience the sheer delight of this wonderful text. Come on, Rain! is one of the many titles that has been recently culled from the picture book section. Luckily this book is still in print.  I plan to now purchase a copy for my own book collection.

You can see the whole text and illustrations here.  In this review Publishers Weekly describe the illustrations by Jon J Muth. Teachers could use this for a visual literacy discussion.  Come on rain is also the perfect book to share with a class after a long dry spell. You could compare it with the Australian book Big Rain Coming by Katrina Germein. My friend at Kinderbookswitheverything has a terrific list of other books to share during rainy days.

Here are some other books by Karen Hesse which I have discussed on this blog:

• Out of the Dust
• Wish upon a Unicorn
• Letters from Rifka
• Sable
• Lavender