WHAT THE ANIMALS WERE WAITING FOR

Morin returns to the East African setting of his powerful Orphan Boy (Tololwa M. Mollel, 1990), pairing large animal images constructed of paint and mixed media with small but clear color photos, to go with London’s (Loon Lake, above, etc.) strongly rhythmic text. Thin from the Months of Hunger, all of the wild creatures seem to be waiting for something. What?, asks a Maasai child. You shall see, his grandmother repeatedly responds. The suspense mounts, until broken at last as the rain arrives with a Boom of thunder and a flush of new grass signals an end to the dry season. Closely viewed from low angles, both animals and brightly clad Maasai seem strongly present within their shared natural world. Like Manya Stojic’s Rain (2000), which has a similar setting, or, from Down Under, Katrina Germein’s Big Rain Coming (2000), a sense of place is as vividly evoked as the universal relief when the saving rain falls at last. (Picture book. 6-8)