Rain

This story has great illustrations and and creates a little anticipation as the animals use their senses to predict that the rain is coming. This is a great story for young children and a must have if you are a preschool teacher.

Stojic's book is very good for emergent readers. It expands children's knowledge and takes them to a far away place. The print is vivid, it helps emergent readers feel like real readers because the text is repetitious and it contributes to children's sense of story because it ends the way it begins. In all, it's a great book for preschoolers and kindergarten children!

Stojic suceeds at her first children'book! Educators/parents can use this book for lessons in African animals, the five senses, and how the Earth needs rain for vegetation and the food we eat. The illustrations are bold and give the feel of the dry African landscape. After the rain comes the illustrations are lush and feel like what we know as spring. Early readers can identify words in the large text. A must have for Early Childhood Educators!!

"Rain," written and illustrated by Manya Stojic, is a very simply written but bold story about how animals could react to the rain in the parched African savanna. Using the five senses of smell, sight, sound, touch and taste, African animals give different commentaries about the coming rains. The bright, bold illustrations are of great value to the book; they make it fun and enjoyable. Using large fonts and bold letters along with the pictures, one can almost feel the heat of the desert rise from the pages as well as the coolness of the rains.The rain cycle could be taught along with this book, showing the benefits of the rain. Life depends on the rains - the grasses grow and fruits develop and mature. Life is sustained again by the blessings of the rain.The book is great for helping young readers build their vocabulary. Sentences such as "A porcupine sniffed around" contain verbs that are easy to act out for children - the children can "sniff" as the porcupine talks about it. Besides the use of basic verbs, it also contains a good variety of descriptive adjectives (ie. cool, soft, squelchy mud). For teaching opposites, such as dry, wet, empty, full, "Rain" can be useful. I see great potential for this book in my bilingual class. Manya Stojic has done a great job on this, her first children's book.

This new release would be a great addition to your child's library. It tells the story of how the wild animals sense that the rain is coming, and then how they celebrate the results of the life-giving rainstorm. The illustrations are done in bright, primary colors that are very eye-catching. I think this is a great book for those long, hot summer days.