If you live where the recent spring rains turned gardens and farm fields into soggy swamps, you might also recall that last summer was a scorching drought. Much of the drippy midwest has been warned of likely droughts again in coming months. The irony of those extremes, the damage of feast or famine in precipitation, provide reliable topics for casual conversations. This has been true in the past and is becoming a pattern across wider regions and with more dire consequences expected. Ask a farmer.
NORTON KIDS PRESS, 2024
A PLACE FOR RAIN is written by Michelle Schaub and illustrated by Blanca Gómez. I read about and reserved this delightful picture book while a downpour racketed outside my windows. The many good words I'd read about it also nudged me to take a closer look.
I'm happy to say I was not disappointed!
The essential story is one of environmental stewardship, as achieved by young kids with some adult guidance and support. It could serve as a how-to book for anyone with the intent to make a personal contribution to improving imbalances and producing a better personal space and communities in need of balance with nature. Or, it's just a truly fun read with an underlying insight.
In the first few pages we meet a diverse group of kids in their rainy-day school environment. The rhythmic and cleverly rhymed text can read as if describing a single day event, but easily suggests that this is a multi-stepped project taking days to accomplish, one that will serve the environment for years to come.
A raincoated, booted woman with a wheelbarrow enters in images, serving the project throughout, but without a single ext mention. That allows the busy, cartoonish kiddos to take center stage in this problem-solving process.
And what is the issue? Well, early pages focus on an onomatopoetic engagement with rain, in the moment, unthreatening. Then a few spreads reveal that when rain becomes a downpour, it creates gushing, rushing, sogging flows that flush various detritus from roofs, gutters, asphalt, and more, flooding that debris into our waterways. That raincoat-clad adult and a couple of kids raise and answer this central question:
"Can we lessen that mess? Yes!"
Using available space and materials, they roll a barrel under a downspout, note the overflow when full, create a winding, shallow trough to channel that flow to a catchment area. That collection site is planted with water- and drought- tolerant native plants to absorb water and sludge. The bonus benefit of a colorful perennial garden that serves as insect and bird habitat is delightfully portrayed. This diversion from urban sewers and waterways that feed into lakes, rivers and oceans is unmistakable.
Illustrations are vibrant and vital, with nearly geometric shapes and soft-edged style that suggest universality among the diversity. The text is a terrific mentor pattern for those attempting to write in rhyme. That's not because it follows the usually mandatory strictness of meter and rhyme scheme. Instead, a rollicking but regular rhythm develops throughout, with lines that celebrate internal rhyme (see that masterful line above), interjections, sudden stops, and perfected pacing to enhance page turns. Granted, this would not be a challenging approach to mmimc, but it does confirm that those who choose to step aside from strict rules need to be VERY sure they can do it well. Schaub does exactly that!
I expected back matter, but there is none. As i considered the target age and intentions of the text, the thoroughness of embedded construction instruction, I could see why backmatter was not necessary. In fact, on the page that shows preparing the collection basin readers find a helpful chart explaining how to easily determine how well your chosen area drains and how to calculate an effective depth. Very clever, indeed!
I hope that many schools, families, day care centers, libraries, and others will find and share this entertaining and inspiring picture book.The language invites repeated readings, and the suggested project can be scaled;ed up or down to allow possible success for any readers. The more who take part, the greater the benefit to Earth, Water, and all of us.