Sing Down the Rain [Hardcover]

Judi Moreillon (Author), Michael Chiago (Illustrator), Danny Lopez (Introduction)

Book Description

The Tohono O'Odham Indians who live in the Sonoran Desert prepare for the rains necessary to provide fruit for the Saguaro Wine Ceremony, their most important harvest celebration.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 2-5--Written as a choral reading for eight parts, this rhyming text describes the Saguaro Wine Ceremony, an important celebration of the Tohono O'odham tribe of the Sonoran desert. This ceremony is integrally related to the hope for rain, calling it down from the sky. Inevitably, the book will be compared to Verna Aardema's Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain (Dial, 1981). While the latter is superior both in text and illustrations, it complements Moreillon's book. Aardema's story is a porquoi tale, while this is a celebration of a culture's traditions. The opportunity presented for cross-cultural comparison is fertile indeed. Used with Brenda Guiberson's Cactus Hotel (Holt, 1991), it could also be used to help explain the human role in desert ecology while focusing on that most amazing of desert plants, the Saguaro cactus. A pairing with Ekkehart Malotki's The Magic Hummingbird (Kiva, 1996) serves to reinforce the importance of rain to the Native cultures of the Southwest. Chiago makes expert use of black line to delineate his human figures, but the real strength of his watercolor illustrations lies in his treatment of the skies. His use of deep tones and cottonball clouds is reminiscent of Barbara Cooney's art. This is a versatile title that serves as both a social studies and language-arts extension.

Ann Welton, Terminal Park Elementary School, Auburn, WA

Copyright 1998 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Kiva Publishing (July 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885772076
• ISBN-13: 978-1885772077
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 10.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #600,972 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Judi Moreillon wrote the poem in Read to Me for Project L.I.F.T., Literacy Involves Families Together. This teen pregnancy program helps young mothers learn that literacy is an important part of nurturing their babies. Kyra Teis's charming illustrations reflect the diversity of families.

Judi wrote Sing Down the Rain to honor the Tohono O'odham children with whom she learned during her first school librarian position at Elvira School in Tucson. Respected elder Danny Lopez served as the cultural advisor for the book. Tohono O'odham fine artist and illustrator Michael Chiago painted the watercolors that capture the beauty of his culture and our Sonoran Desert.

Judi is an assistant professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman's University in Denton. In her twenty-year career in school librarianship, she served at every level, most recently as a 7th-12th grade school librarian in a combined junior high/high library facility. In addition, she has been a classroom teacher, literacy coach, district-level librarian mentor, and classroom teacher and school librarian educator. Judi earned her Master's in library science and a Ph.D. in education at the University of Arizona.