Starred review from December 14, 2015
It’s raining, it’s pouring, it’s boring. “There’s nothing to do. Nothing!” gripes Yum’s unnamed hero. The boy sprawls on a chair as if he’s being martyred by precipitation, and he refuses even to consider coloring to pass the time. But when his mother picks up his crayons and pencils and draws the boy’s blue umbrella, he’s intrigued. “Can you draw me holding it?” he asks her, then urges her to draw a story about a family walk in the rain. The picture quickly becomes a collaboration, with the boy adding streaks of blue crayon for rain (“I’m really good at this”) and a gloriously smudgy puddle for splashing. Soon he realizes that an actual rainy day walk—culminating with real puddle-splashing—is exactly what he needs. “It’s just a picture,” mother and son tell one another at various points, but Yum’s (This Is Our House) renderings—done in a rough, childlike style that fits the story to a T—and all-dialogue text prove that there’s powerful magic in every act of representation, no matter how novice the artist. Ages 4–7. Agent: Sean McCarthy, Sean McCarthy Literary Agency.
December 15, 2015
When a child's mood is dampened by a rainy day, Mom comes to the rescue using her imagination, some crayons, and praiseworthy redirection. "I hate rainy days." Readers are thus introduced to a cross-armed, brow-furrowed pug of a child. Contrariness oozes across the page, infecting both the dog and the cat. Mom has a suggestion. "Do you want to draw?" "NO. I don't want to. I'll never draw!" Truly, the bad weather has ruined the day. With patience and cleverness, Mom begins to draw nonetheless, teasing out a bit of curiosity. The illustrations switch from depicting the scene to displaying the images mother and child are drawing together on the pad. With clever use of conversation, creativity, and crayons, Yum provides a parenting primer on redirection. "Why don't you draw the rain?" Mom asks. The child's little hand draws blue streaks across the paper. The rain becomes a downpour, making puddles on the ground. By drawing this soggy adventure, the young child can imagine the deluge. The joy of splashing in the rain could not even be imagined at the outset. Only through practicing the idea of rainy-day fun does the child start to view the real situation differently. Yum deftly ties moods, weather, parenting, and the power of art together. (Picture book. 4-7)
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July 1, 2016
"I hate rainy days" declares a grumpy boy. "Do you want to draw?" asks his mom; "Okay. I'll draw by myself then," she says. A mother turns a boring rainy afternoon into an exciting one with crayon-drawn (and, eventually, real) puddle-splashing. In this meta making-the-best-of-it story, Yum draws readers in by turning the family's art project into the story. Childlike illustrations pop against stark white backgrounds.
(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)