Bookseller blurb: This haiku collection will enchant both nature lovers and budding poets. The spare, lyrical text describes a series of short vignettes, each of them taking place in a different kind of rain, from thunderstorms to falling flower petals. The poems 'some serious, some gently humorous' depict scenes from all over the globe: a horse struggling to plow a field, a father changing a tire while his children play, and two friends making up after a fight.
Koja Agency: Rain has just fallen, a baby tooth is loose, a beetle stands up soaked and dazed on the gravel, a mole is lurking underground while a guy on a horse gets a phone call from his grandmother. In other places the snow is melting, and the butterflies soon expected to arrive. Today’s paper is dropped from a suspension bridge and two best friends forget to be angry when a rain of flowers falls. On the overall theme of rain, this book depicts different magnificent and extraordinary places around the world. Each spread represents a new world full of subtle details and ingenious humor. Anders Holmer portrays in his unique way what is going on in that moment in that specific place. Short haiku texts accompany the grandiose spreads.
Yesterday was my third visit to one of our large chain bookstores. They have a number of sale tables filled with children's books acquired by the store before 2019. Every time I visit, I pick up another book or two. There are still heaps of treasures on these tables. My friend from Kinderbookswitheverything picked up nine splendid titles. I will talk about some of these once she puts them into her school library and I can borrow them. We BOTH picked up this book because luckily there were two copies Retail price AUS$28.50 bargain price $14.25 - and two copies have been on the shop shelf since December 2018. Maybe no one picked it up because they read this very negative review from a Swedish newspaper?
On each rainy spread, life happens in haiku, with all its cultural variety and complexity: A crane observes two children resolving a quarrel, a goatherd wiggles a loose tooth while surveying the flock, a lighthouse keeper discovers an unmoored boat as puffins glide by, rangers monitor a dying forest fire while creatures scurry away, and travelers with llamas climb a steep hillside, stopping for a beetle in their path. Visual details encourage readers to learn more about the countries of origin of the peoples and animals depicted throughout. School Library Journal (quoted by Barnes and Noble)
Okay - begin with the cover and title - Rain. If you look closely you can see rain or snow falling on this young Inuit child and his or her reindeer. But then think about rain and rein. Now flip to the back cover. You will discover this is a book of haiku poems. Each page can almost stand alone. A brilliant resource for teachers looking to inspire their students to write poetry in this beautiful form. This book is a book of poetry or course, but it also fits into my new category of Poetry with Pictures - these are picture books with no narrative.
My favourite page has puffins AND a lighthouse. To be honest this is probably why I bought this book. Here is the text from that page:
drifts away from the lighthouse -
never tied it up.
Rain is titled Regn in Swedish. It was published in 2018 so is sadly out of print. His debut book was It Happens! (2017).
Anders Holmer is a Swedish architect, artist and author living in Gothenburg. He has been writing and illustrating children's books since 2017. His haiku album, Rain, was shortlisted for the ALMA Prize, Sweden's most prestigious children's literature award. In 2018, Anders Holmer's work was selected for the art exhibition at the New York Society of Illustrators.
About Farewell (also translated as Leave): After a sad conversation with her mother, a child sets off on a long journey strewn with pitfalls, an imaginary journey inspired by the elements that populate her daily life. Along the way, she collects different objects, using a butterfly net: cloud, trumpet or diamond. From these, she makes something even more precious. When she returns, she is ready to be herself again.
About Utflykt (Excursion): In Anders Holmer's new picture book, we meet two children who saunter around in enigmatic fantasy landscapes. One is snuffy and sure of what he is doing, and the other is more questioning about what is going on. They try out different identities and take on different guises. You and I and the world are mixed together. We hear the echo of an adult's voice. Existential comedy ensues when they take on a concept they don't fully understand: Excursion. A celebration of children's ability to create hopeful playfulness and make sense of the world. A metaphor of how we in our lives grope for comprehensibility but instead have to accept that not everything can be understood, and that it is also okay. Maybe we won't be any wiser, but we'll have fun along the way.
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