In Hello, Rain!, Kyo Maclear (The Liszts; Bloom; Operatic) builds a delightful meditation on a theme by following a child and their dog through anticipating a storm to the sunlight at the end.
As the drops begin to fall, child and dog don their rain gear--matching yellow and orange raincoats--and venture out to explore. The companions launch makeshift watercrafts down a flooded street, examine sticky snails and seedlings, and "whisper-talk" under a tree until thunder and lightning send them inside to play in a cozy fort. (Because "naps and secrets are both better--when it rains.") As their soggy trip continues, the child finds optimism in each situation despite the fickle nature of the weather, resulting in a joyous romp dictated by the sky's unpredictability. The adults around them "dash, dart" and "skitter, skatter" to avoid getting wet while the pair revels in the weather: "Why hurry when the sky is an adventure?"
Maclear's poetic text cascades down each page in rivulets and short bursts, requiring the eye to jump around and follow the path of each phrase like a rain droplet. Illustrator Chris Turnham (The Wish Tree) carefully constructs each digitally rendered scene and plays with perspective: on some pages, readers look at the subject through a curtain of rain; on others, the viewpoint is from above as the child and dog walk through rows of lush garden or beneath the spiderwebbed branches of a tree. Maclear and Turnham use Hello, Rain! to magnify the magic and beauty revealed by rain and to remind readers to stop and take in the magic and brilliance all around. --Kieran Slattery, freelance reviewer, teacher, and co-creator, Gender Inclusive Classrooms