What Can I Do When It Rains?

Houghton Mifflin’s popular Good Beginnings series of board books introduces two new titles for 2004, each of them published in English-only and bilingual English-Spanish editions. Continuing the engaging series format, these delightful books answer the question in their title with words that have been selected by the editors of the American Heritage® Dictionaries for their familiarity and age-appropriateness. And as in the previous books, a whimsical menagerie of bears, pigs, dogs, and even a soccer-playing elephant brings the words to life in Pamela Zagarenski’s irresistible full-color drawings.
In What Am I Playing? (zQué juego?), the answers include a range of sports and games, from outdoor ball games and playground activities to indoor pursuits such as puzzles and puppets. What Can I Do When It Rains? (zQué puedo hacer cuando llueve?) includes simple verb phrases, such as “play with friends” and “jump in puddles,” to answer its question, making this an excellent book to introduce even very young children to basic sentence structure.

Pamela Zagarenski is the winner of two Caldecott Honors. The books she has illustrated have also been Booklist Editor's Choices, Horn Book Fanfare and Bulletin Blue Ribbon books, winners of Bank Street's Claudia Lewis Award, and translated into many languages. As well as illustrating picture books, she creates paintings and has a gift card line. She lives in Connecticut. Visit her online at pzagarenski.com, on Instagram @sacredbee, and Twitter @sacredbeez.

The Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries are a team of professional lexicographers with advanced degrees in various scholarly fields. The editors familiarize themselves with the vocabulary in specific subject areas, collect materials on new developments and usage, and work with expert consultants to ensure that the content of our publications is as accurate and as up-to-date as possible.