WAITING OUT THE STORM

A poetic portrait of a young girl and her mother coming in from the rain. While the mother collects daffodils and her daughter watches, the storm announces itself by way of wind blowing through the trees. As the first drops fall, the girl starts to ask anxious questions about the sounds she hears coming from the sky and the animals she sees running for cover. The mother patiently offers her gentle rhyming answers. Readers learn where squirrels, birds, turtles and ducks go during the storm as they follow the mother-daughter pair inside. Gaber’s soft watercolor, pencil and charcoal illustrations render the storm as a peaceful, natural event, doing a wonderful job of expressing the mother’s calm, protective nature to mitigate the actual drama of the storm. Dark clouds look like soft, dark pillows, gold strands of lightning glitter through the foggy mist and the painterly textures give a comforting depth to the surfaces. There is also a nice juxtaposition between the text and visuals as the characters move toward shelter. A soothing read for an angry storm. (Picture book. 3-7)