Product Description

"Come on, Rain!" Tess pleads to the sky as listless vines and parched plants droop in the endless heat. Then the clouds roll in and the rain pours. And Tess, her friends, and their mothers join in together in a rain dance to celebrate the shower that renews both body and spirit. Full color.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #98033 in Books
• Published on: 1999-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780590331258
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
In this quietly affecting story, award-winning author Karen Hesse and artist Jon J. Muth deftly capture the magnificence of a sudden rainstorm on a swelteringly hot day. Much more than a simple tale of weather, Come On, Rain! also portrays the tenderness of mother-daughter relations, the rhythms of urban society, and the power of nature to transform and reinvigorate all forms of life.

The book's collaborators, more like alchemists, work wonders. Muth's sunbaked watercolors perfectly convey the washed-out, drought-stricken world, while Hesse's gripping narrative--a detailed prose poem written in the voice of the watchful, pigtailed Tessie--conveys undaunted hope and anticipation. Like a long-limbed little bird--all twiggy arms and legs--Tessie moves through the neighborhood, observing her Mamma, her friends, the skies, even the streets:

Up and down the block,
cats pant,
heat wavers off tar patches in the broiling alleyway....

I stare out over rooftops,
past chimneys, into the way off distance.
And that's when I see it coming,
clouds rolling in,
gray clouds, bunched and bulging under a purple sky.

A creeper of hope circles round my bones.
"Come on, rain!" I whisper.

As the downpour approaches, Tessie gathers her neighborhood friends for a romp in the raindrops. Their eager anticipation is matched by a rain shower so gigantic, it even makes their mothers run into the street. It's literally the stuff that dreams are made of--my own daughter dreamed of the delicious downpour the night we first read the book. (Click to see a sample spread. Text ©1999 by Karen Hesse. Illustrations ©1999 by Jon J. Muth. Reproduced with permission of Scholastic, Inc.) (Ages 5 and older) --Jean Lenihan

From Publishers Weekly
"Up and down the block,/ cats pant,/ heat wavers off tar patches in the broiling alleyway./ Miz Grace and Miz Vera bend, tending beds of drooping lupines," as a whole neighborhood waits for rain. The narrator, Tessie, is the first one to see the "clouds rolling in,/ gray clouds, bunched and bulging under a purple sky," and she engineers a joyful rain dance with her three friends, Jackie-Joyce, Liz and Rosemary. The long-sought rain "freckles our feet, glazes our toes./ We turn in circles,/ glistening in our rain skin." According to Hesse's bio on the jacket flap, this text contains her initial exploration of motifs used first in her Newbery Medal-winning novel, Out of the Dust. With poetic and immediate language, she again captures the cleansing experience of rainfall after a long dry spell. In an auspicious debut, Muth's illustrations showcase an impressive range of perspectives, from the opening urban skyline to the subtle indication of the oncoming storm in the ruffling of a curtain to the girls' view looking up at their mothers from where they're dancing in the street. His inventive design sense and use of watercolors?smudges of shadow, glistening sidewalks and foggy city-scapes?are remarkable. This is an impressive tribute to those experiences that leave us "purely soothed,/ fresh as dew,/ turning toward the first sweet rays of the sun." Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 2-It's summer in the city and a three-week drought has made the heat nearly unbearable. Skinny little Tessie whispers her prayer, "Come on, rain!" longing for the shower that will break the heat and bring her mother's parched garden back to life. Seeking relief, the girl asks permission to wear her bathing suit, but an "Absolutely not" from Mamma keeps her looking for something to do. Like a blessing, she spies clouds off in the distance. Knowing that her mother will be easier to convince with help from a friend, Tessie runs off to her pal Jackie-Joyce's. "It's going to rain," she whispers. "Put on your suit and come straight over." Tessie returns home to fix her mother a much-needed iced tea, and with the perfect timing of a well-laid plan, Jackie-Joyce arrives along with the rain. As hoped, Mamma changes her mind about the suit and the girls run off to join two friends for a romp in the deliciously refreshing summer rain. To their daughters' delight, all four "...barelegged mammas dance down the steps..." and join in a spontaneous dance of relief and celebration. Muth's deceptively simple, muted watercolors capture the stifling city summer heat as well as a young girl's determination to keep it from ruining all her fun. Hesse's poetically crafted, perceptive text skips delightfully along with its own perfect rhythm. Lyrically written and lovingly illustrated, this is one you'll want to share over and over again.
Alicia Eames, New York City Public Schools
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Customer Reviews

Beautiful
The art work which accompanies this magnificently written, poetic tale is just as remarkable as the carefully chosen delightful words. If you live in the desert, as we do,this is a must-have-book. Over the stifling summer months I read the book time and again with my two year old daughter as we eagerly awaited the arrival of the monsoon rains and each time the simple joy of summer rain leapt out at us from both the pictures and the words. I'm not a writer, so it would take me an eternity to express how very special this book is. Simply put, you will have missed something very special if you never allow yourself the pleaure of soaking up the atmosphere created by this small masterpiece. Invest in a real treasure. If I could give it 10 out of 5 I would. BUY IT.

A beautiful book for young readers.
This is a beautifully written story of a young girl and her mother waiting for rain. It's magical and lyrical and a must read! The illustrations match the text brilliantly and are stunning in their own right. Karen Hesse is not only a wonderful writer of novels for middle-grade readers, she shines as a picture book author as well. Bravo!!

Lyrical picture book
This lyrical ode to the coming rain, accompanied by the soothing wash of lush watercolors, make Hesse's Come on, Rain! sure to please young children. In prose that reads like poetry, young Tessie bemoans the heat of summer while waiting with confidence that rain will soon come. Along with her multicultural friends and all their mammas, Tessie dances in gratitude for the refreshing wetness the rain bestows. While the lyrical prose is of such beautiful quality it could stand on its own, the soft watercolor illustrations portray the emotions of the characters in such lovely detail; the two, the prose and illustrations, combine to create a delightful work of art. Even with the vertical lines of rain which one would expect to stop the motion of the story, Muth manages to create a sense of flowing from left to right, page to page, in keeping with the cadence of the text by using achromatic colors for the backgrounds of most pages. Recommended for children ages 4-8. Public librarians may want to share this title in a storytime about rain, along with Bill Martin's Listen to the Rain.