Drizzle

We recently purchased this book for the students at my K-8 inner city school. We often find ourselves struggling to convince our students to read books(especially of this length), but the kids dove right into Drizzle. They were taken away by the magical farm and the powers Polly soon discovers. The conflict her family faces is believable and made her real to the kids. This book is so versatile that I am reading it to my six year old in small chunks and she hangs onto Polly's every word. Buy this book for any kid who likes to dream!

Kathleen Van Cleve's DRIZZLE tells of preteen Polly, who knows her family's rhubarb farm is unusual. Here the rhubarb tastes like chocolate, diamonds sprout from the ground, and it rains every Monday at 1PM. When the rains suddenly stop, the farm begins to fall apart, and it's up to Polly to restore its magic in this whimsical fantasy.

Polly Peabody believes in magic, and it's a good thing too, because she lives on a farm where the insects talk (or spell, really), the weeping willows really weep, the rhubarb plants communicate and it rains every Monday at 1:00. Just on their farm. All is not well though, because Polly often feels like a freak because she lives on such a magical place and when one day it quits raining, she must discover her true power so she can save not only the farm, but her family as well. This is a very well written book that was captivating even for a grown up like me. What kid (or grown up for that matter) hasn't dreamed of living in an actual castle, and having conversations with animals? The author does a great job here of portraying a magical environment with just the right note of whimsy that makes the whole tale just mesmerizing. There's a great environmental message here about keeping in touch with the land and how everything is inter-related, but it's not heavy handed. The characters are well drawn and Polly is a character that I think every "tweener" can identify with, be it boy or girl. There's quite a bit of what I would call "mysticism" here so parents be forewarned if you frown on that sort of thing. I really liked how the author included elements of Emerson's Self Reliance. Now this is a children's author that doesn't talk down to her readers. All in all it's a great fantasy that will be perfect for those kids who find Harry Potter and the like to maybe be a bit too dark. A recommend for anyone 8 and up who would like a good uplifting tale.

My 8 year old son just tore through this book. He's a picky reader, but he LOVED this one. To say that Drizzle is just another kids book is to say that the Brooklyn Bridge is just another bridge. Buy this book now. It feels like an old friend and will probably become a classic.