Customer Reviews

The Happy Rain

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4 star:		(0)
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we got this for my kids and their cousin before we moved to seattle, and it turned out to be an incredibly sweet and appropriate book for that move. in the town in the book, it's always rainy, and the people love it. they're startled and afraid when the rains suddenly stop and try all kinds of crazy measures suggested by all kinds of "experts" to get the rain to start. in the end, it is the children who suggest addressing the clouds directly and asking for rain, rather than trying to manipulate them into raining. it reads to me like a parable of joy in nature and weather, and the moral seems to be forthrightness and honesty. we talk a lot to our kids about asking for what they want and need directly instead of trying to make people do what they want through manipulation---which usually others don't understand and resent. the whole story feels dreamy and joyful.

Children will enjoy the funny and imaginative story of a town of Troekan that is so used to rain that when it stops they are just helpless and don't know what to do. The wonderful and yet very simple illustrations complement this humorous story very well, but I just wish there were more of them for the amount of text in the book. The story, although quite lengthy for a picture book, is very well written and engaging and will keep children laughing at the comical slutions that the wise men come up with in order to get the rain back, like everybody having to stand on their head for three days, or shoot cannons at the clouds. In the end it is two children who come up with the solution that works - let the rain know how much they love it!! We will conclude that our preferrences are not necessarily based on reason but on our familiarity with the subject no matter how strange.