The Rain Stomper

Boswell, J.,& Velasquez, E. (2008). The Rain Stomper. New York: Marshall Cavendish Children.

Lexile Score: N/A

Summary: Jazmin is a young cheerleader who wakes up one morning for a parade, but realizes that it’s raining outside. She then decides to make the most of it and go in the rain and stomp, shout, and jump until the rain clears.

Evaluation: This a great read aloud to engage students by having them actually perform the sounds during the story. It teaches onomatopoeias perfectly. The story has no stereotypes, a good story line that is simple, but effective, and positive effects. It teaches children that instead of being upset about something like rain, instead, make something positive out of it like embracing the rain and stomping around in it.

The protagonist in this story is diverse in that she is a Black young girl, which allows children to explore someone different than their typical protagonist in books that they’ve read. The conflict in this story is that the rain is halting the parade. It is resolved when it finally stops raining and the children and community members come outside and the parade could begin. The story offers children a variety of things to think about including all of the different sounds she could be making in the rain.

This story also offers a great deal of lessons to be learned. Not only onomatopoeias, but also theme and rhyming words. The story promotes understanding of our diverse society. The illustrations help do this. There are children of all different races shown throughout, which shows a variety of backgrounds.  

Literary Elements: Onomatopoeia- Sounds like boom, tap, clack, and rattle make up almost the entire story and engages students tremendously.

Rhyme- Words like slap and whack make the story easy and fun to read. Rhyming words are exposed throughout the whole book.  

Illustrations- The pictures demonstrate the sounds perfectly. You can see the movement and hear it as well, especially loud noises like boom!

Mini Lesson: During the read aloud, allow the children to make their own versions of the sounds. Then, afterwards, have the whole class close their eyes and give a sound to the whole class. Then, ask them to write down what image they see and why then share.

Target audience: 2^nd grade and up because even 8^th graders could have fun with this book by making the sounds. Even as a college student reading this book, I was engaged, able to participate, and enjoy the story all at the same time.