A child indoors watches the rain on the window and in the streets and tells how it falls on the fields, hills, and seas.

Judging by the reviews and the cover art I see on GR, the 2006 edition has been considerably brightened.  The original, at least as reprinted in 1988, that I read, is muted, almost dull, with tiny font.  I would like to see the new edition - or even one with a brand-new illustrator (though I have enjoyed others by Shulevitz). ( )

Beautiful. Simple. Focused on rain and the water cycle in some capacity. Wonderful. ( )

The rain, and its impact in the natural world and in the slant-roofed small room of the child listening, makes up the action here in alliterated, beautiful, big words. The illustrations of water unfurl in splendor less limited than is typical for Shulevitz's work, perhaps because there is no threat to the child tucked safely inside that small room.

A great read-aloud book for K-1 or any water study for young children. ( )

In the comfort of an attic bedroom a girl and her cat contemplate the rain outside the window. The girl watches it rushing down the eaves, gushing out the drainpipes and thinks of the puddles that she can sail her toy boats in tomorrow. She imagines it raining on hills and fields far from her city home and collecting in rills, and brooks and rushing into the sea. “Oceans are swelling, Melting the skies.” She anticipates the joy of playing in the puddles with her friends. “We’ll run barefoot in puddles and stamp in warm mud. I’ll jump over pieces of sky in the gutter.” Her lyrical contemplation is illustrated in a muted palette of blue, yellow, and green over black ink. ( )