Come On, Rain!

by Karen Hesse

This book is an emotional thrill. It opens in the stagnant, summer heat. You can breathe the slumbering silence that the words and pictures evoke. The tomato plants are drooping; people are sluggish. All is still.
Not so young Tess. She is busy running around cajoling her mother to let her wear a swim suit, conspiring with her best friend, Jackie Joyce to gather their friends. She is determined to will the rain to come down out of the sky. Tess whispers her incantation “come on, Rain; come on Rain.”
As the dark clouds approach the text and gorgeous water colors gather speed and life. What happens next is movingly magical:

“We grab the hands of our mamas
We twirl and sway them,
Tromping through puddles,
Romping and reeling in the moisty green air.
We swing our wet and wild-haired mammas ‘til we’re all laughing under trinkets of silver rain.”

If you have ever experienced such a moment with a child, you know that children can indeed cast joyful spells on simple pleasures that will forever loom large in your memory and theirs.

When my third daughter was born, I named her Tess.

Reviewed by Vivian