When the Dark Clouds Come

K-Gr 3–Mixed media collage pairs with poetic prose to create this powerful story, a visual metaphor for darkness and rain yielding, finally, to sunshine and light. As the sun goes down, dark clouds creep from the edges of the frame, slowly moving towards the center and across the gutter until the full bleed is covered, terrifyingly, in darkness. The images, themselves rich in hue and texture, feel appropriately claustrophobic as light gives way to darkness, rain begins to poor, and a terrifying flash of lightning “lights up the dark corners, and the thunder rolls down the stairs like a tumbling snore.” The prose itself is a fitting match for the vividness of the collage as it balances hints of safety (“but bedrooms feel safe and warm as shadows whisper goodnight”) with poetry (“the world wriggles and buzzes as everyone greets the warm new day”) as the sun rises. The dark clouds pass, leaving behind a palette awash in warm yellows, because “when the dark clouds come, the sun is never far behind.” This is a masterly marriage of text and illustration that doubles as an SEL read, as well as a more literal interpretation of the fear that comes with a dark, stormy night.