Storms

Hi, readers!  It seems that we've had evenings filled with thunderstorms with very few exceptions.  And in trying to make the moments a fun-filled, memorable time instead of a fearful time of skirting thunder and lightning, I found these two reads that the kids have enjoyed. 

In Waiting Out the Storm (c. 2010), author JoAnn Early Macken cleverly captures the dialogue between mother and child.  She faithfully represents the uncertainty of the child experiencing the approaching storm as well as a mother's tender responses to quell her child's alarm:

They burst from the cloud,

skipping and leaping and laughing out loud.

They spin and they tumble.  They bounce on the breeze.

They dance to the tune of the wind in the trees.

Susan Gaber's beautiful illustrations further illuminate the peacefulness a storm can bring.  This is by far our favorite "storm" book due to Macken's reassuring text and Gaber's comforting illustrations.

Margaret Bloy Graham's illustrations make The Storm Book (c.1952) by Charlotte Zolotow worth checking out.  Graham received a Caldecott Honor for her panoramic illustrations.  The publishers uniquely presented the story by placing the text alone on each spread, and then by placing the follow-up picture.  At first I didn't know what to think of the presentation.  However, I grew to like the perspective of allowing our imaginations to run wild with Zolotow's text before seeing the motion in Graham's illustrations.

The Seashore Book

Let's pretend . . . It is early morning at the seashore and it's hard to tell where the sea stops and the sky begins.  They are the same smoky gray until the mist shifts from gray to dark white, from dark white to pale purple, from pale purple to hazy blue, and then suddenly, the sun breaks through!

So begins the brilliantly descriptive narrative of a mother relating to her son what the "seashore is like."  The Seashore Book (c. 1992) reflects Charlotte Zolotow at her best, describing the shore in what Publisher's Weekly terms "tactile, vivid and musical images."  Zolotow's descriptions paint such detailed pictures that leave a day at the beach imprinted on your imagination long after the the book is closed.