50. Downpour: Splish! Splash! Ker-Splash! Yuko Ohnari. Translated by Emily Balistrieri. Illustrated by Koshiro Hata. 2025 (2018). 40 pages. [Source: Library] [picture book, 5 stars]
First sentence: It's sooo hot! The ground's burning hot! Hot, hot! Huh? Clouds. Dark clouds. They're coming this way! Plip! Plip! Plip! It's raining. Plip! plip! plip! The drops are big! It smells like the sky. It smells like the ground, too. BADA-BADA-BADA. BADA-BADA-BADA. PLIP. PLIP. BADA. PLAM-PL-PLAM. PLIP. BADA-BADA. My umbrella's a drum.
Premise/plot: A young boy enjoys a rain storm. Downpour was originally published in Japan in 2018. It has recently been translated into English and published in the United States. In some ways, it's a simple book with a simple story: a boy celebrating RAIN. But it's told in a rhythmic, playful way.
My thoughts: Do I love it more than Umbrella? No. I want to be upfront about that. I love and adore Taro Yashima's UMBRELLA. A thousand stars. A million stars. All the stars. By far my favorite picture book ever-ever-ever. (Taro Yashima was a Japanese artist who immigrated to the United States in 1939. He wrote and illustrated children's books.) But this book comes close--not in artistic style of the illustrations--but in capturing the simple joys of the rhythm of the rain. In the playfulness of language, perhaps. As far as the art goes, there are a few spreads that I absolutely LOVE. So I definitely recommend Downpour! But if you haven't read Umbrella, check that one out too!
© 2025 Becky Laney of Young Readers
No comments:
Post a Comment