The Rain is Raining all Around…Let it Kiss You
We are on our third day of steady rain with the occasional thunderstorm here in Oconomowoc, WI.
It is also National Poetry Month.
If I had to pick just one book that we truly, truly couldn’t live without here in the Picture Book House, it would be A Child’s First Book of Poems, illustrated by Cyndy Szekeres (Western Publishing Company, 1981). See my previous blog about it, here.
In this collection is one of my favorite poems about rain:
“Rain”
The rain is raining all around,
It falls on field and tree;
It rains on the umbrellas here,
And on the ships at sea.
Robert Louis Steveson
This short, sweet poem reminds me of rainy days when we are snuggled down below on my parents’ sailboat in Canada.
It is a perfect little verse to memorize and recite whenever you feel so inspired…like I was, today.
It is accompanied by a Cyndy Szekeres’ picture of a handful of well-dressed field mice, delighting in the raindrops from their sheltered spaces beneath purple coneflower petal umbrellas.
To further celebrate poetry and the rain here is one more poem from another favorite, our poetry book for bedtime: A Small Child’s Book of Cozy Poems, also illustrated by Cyndy Szekeres (Scholastic, 1999):
“April Rain Song”
Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain beat upon your heard with
silver liquid drops.
Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.
The rain makes running pools in the gutter.
The rain plays a little sleep-song
on our roof at night.
And I love the rain.
–Langston Hughes
In this poem’s picture there are more field mice, now holding daisy umbrellas instead of purple coneflowers, and only the father mouse is actually under his umbrella.
The two little boy mice are splashing in puddles and sticking their tongues out to catch drops of rain.
I think we’ll go do the same…
Picture Book House 
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