After the Rain

K-Gr 3–With her dog, a girl with brown skin and cascading brown gingerish hair goes out for a walk that begins in sunshine, suffers a few small drops, then darkening skies and sheets of rain. It’s wordless to that point, while a grandmother, white with darker hair, waits from the porch. In this exuberantly illustrated picture book, rich scientific vocabulary kicks in after the rain, used to describe the things the girl and the dog observe: evaporation, puddles, humidity. The brightly colored images help to demonstrate the meanings and move the story along with amusing actions of both the dog and the girl, resplendent against the flora and fauna of their neighborhood. Spicer (Unseen Jungle, etc.) uses this excellent book to introduce scientific concepts of the water cycle, or the needs of plants and animals to young readers.