"By the front door there is an umbrella. It is big. It is a big, friendly umbrella. It likes to help. It likes to spread its arms wide."
Yes it is raining. Time for this umbrella to go to work. One person, two people, four people, tall, short, hairy, even plaid - they all need shelter and the umbrella is happy to help.
The Big Umbrella is a picture book about kindness. It is one of those wonderful books you could share with preschool aged children but you could also share it with a much older group. The text I quoted at the start of the post comes from the first six pages of this book. You will want to talk about the themes of inclusiveness, tolerance, compassion, community, and perhaps diversity but you could also use this book to talk about the structure of a picture book. Pacing, word placement, page turns, and the use of pages with no words. The illustrations by Amy June Bates are perfect. The Big Umbrella was first published in 2018 and it is still available but here in Australia the hardcover edition is quite expensive.
A subtle, deceptively simple book about inclusion, hospitality, and welcoming the “other.” Kirkus
The book I could use as a companion to The Big Umbrella is this one:
Rain is a very complex phenomena to paint but in this book you can almost feel and hear the rain drops.
I do like books about rain and umbrellas. Yes this book - The Big Umbrella - is about so much more but here are some other books on rain and umbrellas:
It might be fun to fill your school library with Umbrellas or invite your school art teacher to create a display.
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