It's Raining!
1 Paperback/1 CD (see all formats)

Gibbons’s books consistently pose a challenge for narrators (and independent readers) because the text is scattered across the page and doesn’t merely flow from right to left. However, seasoned voice talent Suzanne Toren deftly handles the difficulty. For example, rather than try to read the world map of annual rainfall, Toren describes it. “Let’s stop reading and take a look at the maps on these two pages,” she says before laying out the differences among the colors on the map as indicated in the key. She then reads aloud the text on the maps. It helps to have a skilled reader listen along with a nonreader to point out labels read by the narrator, which can be confusing when taken out of context. Sound effects such as quacking ducks, falling rain, and boots splashing in puddles add character and interest to the recording. This introduction to rain is filled with weather vocabulary, explained simply enough for young listeners to grasp. VERDICT Future meteorologists will be hooked and want to learn more.

"With her signature simplicity, Gibbons explains the complex topic of rain: that it’s necessary to all living things, what makes it happen, how it can be dangerous as well as beneficial, and what to do when storm clouds threaten. Toren reads with a mild-mannered gravity, neither ponderously didactic nor breezily overenthusiastic. Using a slightly emphatic tone and a marginally slower pace, she underlines words in the main text that are often explained later in the embedded captions found elsewhere on the page. She also follows a recognizable pattern in presenting the complex layout, and the suggestion that young listeners pause the audio experience to study the double-page spread of mapped information is a welcome solution to what could have otherwise been lost information. Music and sound effects—from splashing raindrops to booming thunder—round out this satisfying introduction to an everyday topic of interest to young audiences."