Tap Tap Boom Boom
Elizabeth Bluemle, illustrated by G. Brian Karas
sketchy pastel and pencil figures over sepia-toned photograph collages of the city scenery
I'm always in the market for a good book about a rainstorm. I love storms, love thunder and lightning, and I love presenting books that represent them in a way that minimizes their potential as frightening.
This one is delightful. Rhythmic text emphasizes the sounds of the storm - the growing rumbles of thunder and the tap of the rain morphing into the harder louder dance of the growing storm, and then the waning energy revealing the blue sky and fresh air.
However, in addition to that, we're also treated to a very humanistic, very city-based representation of the storm, and for my rural patrons, that's something else that I'm very happy to represent as many times and an as many ways as possible.
Carts pop up to sell umbrellas on the sidewalk. Pedestrians huddle near the buildings to hide from the splashes of passing cars. When the storm picks up, they retreat into a subway terminal, waiting out the storm above in a temporary commune of like-minded and varyingly dry inhabitants. Pizza is shared, umbrellas are offered, smiles exchanged, and then up to the surface again to resume daily life, refreshed after a break from the ordinary.
I'd pair this with city-based rain books for a thunderstorm storytime, or with city-based musical books for a rhythm storytime.
Stormy Books:
Come On Rain, Karen Hesse
Monsoon Afternoon, Kashmira Sheth
Thunder Boomer, Shutta Crum
Rhythm Books:
Ruby Sings the Blues, Niki Daley
Max Found Two Sticks, Brian Pinkney
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