Storm Song

PreS—Brief, rhyming, onomatopoeic verse tells the slight story of three small children who observe a thunderstorm from the second story of their country home. "Raindrops beat/A steady sound-/Tat. Tat. Tap./Pitter, pat,/POUND!" When the lights go out, "Mom sings songs to quiet fear," and, when the children get hungry, she pops corn on the gas stove. The youngsters snooze until the "Storm soon roams/Across the hill-/Hum…hum…um./Sprinkle…SPLASH…/Still." Digitally rendered cartoon illustrations depict characters smartly attired in fashionable, casual clothing. Very young children will enjoy the wordplay. Shutta Crum's Thunder-Boomer! (Clarion, 2009) depicts a farm family during a summer storm; the richly descriptive narrative is infused with onomatopoeia. Older children may enjoy John Rocco's Blackout (Hyperion, 2011), a powerful example of spare text paired with evocative illustrations that show the individual and collective events of family members in Brooklyn when the lights go out.—Laura Scott, Farmington Community Library, MI