WHEN THE SKY ROARS

A boy who is frightened of thunder embarks on an amazing journey to find out what causes the roar in this debut picture book.

The narrator, a bespectacled White boy with short brown hair and a feline companion, hears a boom in the sky and gets nervous. But despite hiding under the covers, the kid feels no better. After recalling other storms, he sets off, determined to identify who’s behind the roar and tell the villain to stop. With a balloon harness worthy of a Pixar movie, the narrator floats into the clouds, discovering ballerina sky pirates and intrepid firefighters before realizing that the rumble comes from an angry dinosaur mama, whose children have destroyed her pie. After the resourceful mama makes another one and the dino kids share a slice with the narrator, the boy returns home, no longer scared of thunder. Weaver’s opening is true to childhood fears of storms, making the whimsical journey feel even more enchanting. The author’s rhyming text scans well, featuring some challenging vocabulary words (scramble, oodles, scrumptious) for newly independent readers. Weaver’s digital cartoon illustrations employ bright colors, even during the storm. The boy’s cat appears in almost every spread, sometimes costumed or mischievous but always providing insight into the narrator’s emotions. A recipe for berry pie at the end, best made with an adult’s help, may encourage young readers to bake dinosaur desserts during tempests.

This magical, imaginative, humorously illustrated tale may quell the fears of readers scared of storms.