Puddle Jumping to Fun and Connection

Overhead, the sun blazes and bakes the air to a barely stirring, arid breath. This summer’s temperatures break records. (The LOWS have not dropped below 80°.) Plants and people wilt. Scorched by the sun, the grass turns crunchy. Even my little mini-schnauzer refuses the walk for which she normally begs. Instead, she digs in her heels, choosing to stay in air-conditioned comfort.

This is Florida. Supposedly the rainy season started–by the calendar–but not according to Mother Nature. She’s been downright stingy with the rain so far this season. We search the sky for a well-needed shower and pray for the freshness of a cool rain.

Come On, Rain by Karen Hesse makes an apt choice for a summer read. Jon J. Muth’s watercolors serve as the perfect medium to illustrate the book. Told in free verse through the voice of Tessie, a young girl residing in the sweltering city, readers can identify with her yearning for the respite of some rain. In spare text, Hesse presents several characters–adults and children–using a few, revealing details that flesh them out. When the rain finally comes, readers will feel their joy and yearn to bare their own feet and puddle-jump in the first available rain.

AQ Lens: Come On, Rain features an ethnically divers group of friends and pictures them having fun together. Ethnicity is not a “topic”; it’s simply part of the background fabric. I like how normalizes having friends who look different, so normal that it doesn’t need to be mentioned. I also love the fact that it shows mothers and daughters having fun together. Sharing good times is essential to strong family bonds; it’s the glue that bridges the hard times and fills the family memory banks. Any one of us can enjoy splashing and dancing around in the rain. May we always be young enough in spirit to grab for such moments of frivolity.

Why not promise yourself a rain dance of your own, the very next time it sprinkles in your yard? Too hard to wait? Perhaps water balloons or squirt guns will do the trick. Come On Rain. Come on fun times!