Is It Raining Blessings or Misery?

Our long-awaited rainy season has arrived with a vengeance here in south Florida. Apocalyptic downpours, deafening thunder and thousands of lightning strikes have slammed into our world. This reminded me of how rain or many other things can be both a blessing and challenge.

A Bucket of Blessings, a New York Times bestselling book written by Kabir Sehgal and illustrated by Jing Jing Tsong beautifully captures this concept. The tall tale describes a young monkey’s efforts to haul a bucket of water to Peacock so the bird can “prime the pump” of her magic and cause rain to fall.

But monkey does not notice his bucket leaks. When he finally arrives at the mountain top, only a few drops remain. Peacock consoles monkey by pointing out the trail of blessings that the dripping bucket sparked. In Maya Angelou’s afterword, she summarizes, “The reader is shown that it is a blessing to be a blessing.” For either child or adult, that is a lovely and life-affirming message!

Tsong’s fantastical illustrations add energy and further the tall tale perfectly. Young readers will enjoy scrutinizing them.

Now, just to confuse things this post’s next three reviews are for books with the identical title: “Rain”!

The first Rain is written and illustrated by Sam Usher. A boy delights to awaken to a rainy day. Plans abound in his mind. But first, Grandad insists they wait out the storm. The oversize format conveys the boy’s frustration as he waits to embark on his rainy day adventures. Grandad and boy both busy themselves while the wait. Each activity the boy chooses, stirs up new thoughts of high adventure and an intensifying yearning to be splashing in the rain

When Grandad finally relents, the boy exuberantly enacts his fantasies. He comes to understand how anticipation adds a delicious and intensifying aspect to experience. The delicate illustrations perfectly capture the beauty of a rain-drenched world.

The next book titled Rain is by Linda Ashman and illustrated by Christian Robinson. The story opens with a two-page spread featuring an large apartment building. The next spread depicts two individuals peering out the window during a downpour. One, a grumpy old man, scowls. The other, a boy is thrilled. On the following pages we see the two characters as they prepare to go outside. The old man complains about his boots, his overcoat, his hair. Then when the doorman greets him, the man snaps “Hardly. Dang puddle.” In contrast, the boy dresses eagerly. He beams as he anticipates the pleasure that the storm brings: “frogs and pollywogs!” The boy returns the doorman’s greeting with a “Ribbet” and then promptly leaps into that same nearby puddle.

Page after page we see the two characters encounter the same things, one with irritation and anger, the other with delight and excitement. As in Bucket of Blessings, the reader sees how the same event can be viewed as either a blessing or a challenge. In the end, the boy wins over the curmudgeon. In a satisfying, unexpected conclusion, the old man jumps in the puddle outside the apartment entrance. The boy has made a real difference. He embodies Maya Angelou’s words that it “is a blessing to be a blessing.”

And the final Rain book is the classic illustrated by Donald Crews and written by Robert Kalan. I remember reading this book with my own children who are now parents themselves. It is still a satisfying and entertaining read. With just a handful of words, this picture book conveys the mood of a rainy day. Donald Crews uses typography in an innovative and captivating way to create the steady stream of raindrops. This book is basically a color concept book rather than a story. Like the other stories, it reminds us that rainbows follow the storms of life.

AQ Lens

Adoptees have direct personal experience with events that can simultaneously be happy and sad, positive and negative so these books might resonate deeply with them. Certainly they can easily lead to conversations about how one can experience things in complex ways instead as purely sad or purely troublesome. They “know” that having a family is a “blessing” and they also understand that for them, this blessing does not erase the reality of the loss of their birth family. Parents can help kids explore these co-existing dichotomies as well as how a child’s feelings can evolve throughout their lives. Emotions about such dramatic life issues are not static.

Books like these can help address such profound concepts indirectly. This element of disassociation may make it easier for kids to process their big feelings, complex thoughts and fears. Or, they can simply enjoy the books as fun, entertaining stories. “Read” your child’s mood to help you determine how deeply to dig beyond the obvious.

 
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Most Clicked Post from Last Time

The most clicked post from our previous #diversekidlit is 2016 Américas Award Winning Children’s Books by Svenja at Colours of Us. She provides a brief description of each of the winners, finalists, and commended titles from this year’s awards announcement. The Américas Award is a great resource for incredible books about Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latinos in the US.

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