Silver Rain Brown - Hardcover

Helldorfer, Mary-Claire

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395730937 ISBN 13: 9780395730935

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999

Synopsis

As a city neighborhood looks for ways to survive a long, hot, summer drought, a single mother and her young son await the birth of a new baby. The heat wave has tempers rising like mercury in a thermometer. Can't cool down! Finally, it rains - a soft, silver rain that brings everyone outside. That night the baby arrives, like the rain, a blessing. Welcome to the world, Silver Rain Brown! The potential for joy and people's ability to survive even difficult circumstances inspired this story of family and community, hope and rebirth.

About this title

About the Author:

Artist Teresa Flavin currently lives in Glasgow. Between trips to India, she clambers about the Scottish highlands with her geographer husband.

From Kirkus Reviews:

The hazy hot summer seems interminable for a young African-American boy and his pregnant mother. ``Can't cool down!'' is the refrain that reverberates throughout the tale, and it's literally true; lack of rain has put the city on a water conservation alert and the mother worries about all her flowers. Instead of despairing, mother and child surreptitiously water the plants using kitchen pots under the cloak of darkness; the theme of personal resilience and coping permeates the tale. A cooling, life-giving rain heralds the onset of the mother's labor and the arrival of a new baby sister, Silver Rain Brown. The special bond between mother and son is readily apparent in Flavin's full-page, full-color illustrations. As for the father, there is only one reference for readers to interpret: ``Four a.m. and I can't sleep, wishing Daddy would come back, wishing, wishing it would rain.'' Helldorfer deftly captures the heavy oppressiveness of a summer heat wave, from children attempting to fry eggs on the sidewalk to short tempers and sleeping the hot days away, while Flavin's illustrations artfully reflect the shimmering cityscapes. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0395730937
• ISBN 13: 9780395730935
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Flavin Teresa