Sun Shower

A story about friendship from this New Zealand author (also available in te reo Maori).

The characters are Sun, Rain and Cloud - all capital letters making a good learning point for the use of pronouns.

Cloud is the go-between and wants to introduce Rain to Sun but the differences between the two are hard to connect. ‘The sun is so warm and she makes people smile’. Who wouldn’t want her as a friend! The characters find positive things about each other and realise there is a balance to a friendship.

The book is an excellent introduction/learning experience about the weather. An explanation would be needed about the word ‘nimbus’ - rain clouds. Also a great opportunity for a discussion about opposites - wet and dry - warm and cool.

This is not a rhyming text but lots of adjectives and descriptive language make it an excellent ‘read aloud. eg. ‘marshmallow white clouds’ - ‘Sun shook her fiery mane’ - lightning fizzed across their faces’.

The illustrations were created on an ipad using Procreate. An interestingly new concept for this reviewer. The eyes of the characters express their feelings well. As the story progresses the activities of the people in the illustrations show what people do in the different weather situations. Did you spot the taniwha lurking in the water?

I always like to see page numbers in books - sadly not in this book… but there is a happy ending which is nice 🙂