Rain
Manya Stojic
Pavilion Books
I’m delighted to see this in print again: it was (along with Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain) a big favourite with a reception class I was teaching at the time it was first published and became the inspiration for a huge wall display.
‘It was hot. Everything was hot and dry.’ Thus begins this scorcher of a book – no actually it begins on the front cover with baboon’s arm waving, Thereafter, Porcupine sniffs the air and smells the coming rain. He then passes the good news on to the zebras – they see it …

and transmit the news to the baboons: they hear it and go to tell the rhino. Down comes the first raindrop – splash! And rhino feels it.

Lion, last to receive the news has a truly multi-sensory experience: he smells it; he sees it; he hears it; he feels and … he tastes it. Ahhh bliss! A torrent ensues filling every water hole, cleansing and refreshing the land and, when it eventually ceases, the animals are there to enjoy the bounties it leaves behind: big shady green leaves, cool soft squelchy mud to lie in; fresh juicy fruits to eat;

cool refreshing water to drink in the waterhole and the promise of further rain to come…
Everything about this uplifting book is admirable: the scene setting cover; the way tension mounts towards the dramatic climactic downpour then eases down as the animals relish what it leaves in its wake; the seamless integration of pictures and words; the way the carefully chosen words (a delight to read aloud) and painterly illustrations (they really transport you to the African savannah setting) play an equal part. Then there’s the repetition, the print presentation; the circularity of the whole thing …
This was a great debut picture book for Manya Stojic: I hope we see more of her solo books (re)published here in the UK.

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