Description
Through exquisite language and acute observation, Newbery medalist Karen Hesse recreates the glorious experience of a quenching rainstorm on a sweltering summer day. Jon J Muth’s masterful and lyrical watercolors perfectly reflect the spirit of the text.
This book fills a need in the Waldorf community of more seasonal stories told from the point of view of children from different cultures. As an anthropologist I am defining culture to mean the different ways and different places people live in. For example, many seasonal stories told in the Waldorf classroom take place in the beautiful countryside, in the woods, or on a farm. This story takes place in the city so it provides a nice seasonal story that city kids can relate to, but it still retains the charm of the early childhood story.
This story also fills a need children have to explore different kinds of weather and be able to relate to seasonal stories they hear. In a world where many are sheltered by living in air conditioned homes children can become distant from other ways people may experience weather. When I lived in Cairo we didn’t have air conditioning at all and it was sweltering hot in the summer. We used to take naps in the middle of the day. I love the way this story creates a very close relationship between the girl and the weather. She is not indoors in the air conditioning hiding from the weather, she is experiencing it and her mood is linked to it.
