Rain

by Anders Holmer

Overview

A poetry collection celebrating the wonders of the natural world 

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. 

With its majestic artwork, this introduction to a classic poetic form will inspire readers to write their own haiku as they experience the amazing world around them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467467452
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	10/09/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	8 MB
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Anders Holmer is a visual artist and architect. In 2017 he wrote and illustrated his debut picture book, Everything Happens! (Natur & Kultur), which combined his love of both humor and poetry. He lives in Sweden

Editorial Reviews

08/27/2018
The impact of haiku and illustrations by Swedish creator Holmer (Everything Happens!) is muted—at first. The short poems, as the title promises, examine rainy weather. A series of landscapes, all double-page paintings, span the globe and feature a collection of curious, unexpected scenarios. Someone drops a newspaper off a rope bridge in the Himalayas. In a downpour on a street in some tropical city, “The car radio/ plays a song about the sun,/ but no one hears it.” A person rows through a bayou with a donkey for a passenger. The paintings, friezelike sweeps in quiet earth tones, hold interest in every corner, brushed in delicate, even exquisite detail. Verse and image combine over the pages to create a distinctive view of the world—puckish (“Beneath ashes are/ seeds for a new forest that/ might burn someday too”) and attuned to events large and small (in a spread of children riding horses in a driving rain, “Hooves thunder above/ moles digging underground, and/ Grandma is calling”). Incident, humor, and close observation all conspire to invite readers to see rain—and the world—in new ways. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

— Kirkus Reviews (STARRED review)
"[These poems] invite readers to pore over each colorful, expressive illustration to discover visual clues contained in the spare verse. A unique read-aloud that blends world cultures, poetic form, and natural splendor."

Publishers Weekly
"The paintings, friezelike sweeps in quiet earth tones, hold interest in every corner, brushed with delicate, even exquisite detail. . . . Incident, humor, and close observation all conspire to invite readers to see rain—and the world—in new ways."

From the Publisher

10/01/2018
K-Gr 3—Written entirely in haiku, this slim title depicts rainy days around the world. The verse transports readers from a person with a broken-down car in the middle of a storm to a much-needed rainfall after a forest fire. Each spread in the book shows how poetry and nature can marry to capture a mood in time. The work ends with a haiku about a moment after rain, a scene filled with falling pink tree petals and friendship. The delicate illustrations, done in greys and muted blues and browns, are atmospheric. The animals and people are given as much detail and care in the artwork as the tiny drops of water. This would make for an understated introduction to haiku; have students create their own weather-inspired poems. VERDICT A quiet, somewhat melancholy addition to poetry collections.—Molly Dettmann, Norman North High School, OK

School Library Journal

★ 2018-08-14

A pastoral panorama of bucolic settings, spare verse, and multicultural depictions of rain in this Swedish import.

Whether drops of water, flakes of snow, cherry-blossom petals, or dripping tendrils of moss, rains can nourish life, extinguish fires, and offer steady percussion for a locomotive musical interlude. 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. A short note on the copyright page explains haiku, especially the role of nature in the classic form. While these poems do not strictly follow all the characteristics of haiku, they do evoke different moods, such as the gathering darkness of a crocodile swamp. They also break stereotypes by juxtaposing technology and rural life—a cellphone rings amid a group of bareback riders galloping across a steppe. Most of all, they invite readers to pore over each colorful, expressive illustration to discover visual clues contained in the spare verse.

A unique read-aloud that blends world cultures, poetic form, and natural splendor. (Picture book/poetry. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews