A young boy cracks open the front door and peers outside. The dark shadows from the roof and the trees give a foreboding sense of something to come. Three umbrellas sit neatly in their holder, right by the door. The boy goes out to play.

  “It’s sooo hot!

The ground’s burning hot!

      Hot, hot!”

Soon enough, a dark grey cloud interrupts the bright blue sky. The umbrellas, still in their holder, are now prominent on the page as the boy glances at the coming storm. By the next page, the first rain drops have started and the boy stands and observes as he takes in the auditory “plip” of the fat drops falling.

The rain falls harder and an umbrella opens.

The rest of Downpour: Splish! Splash! Ker-splash! by husband-and-wife team Yuko Ohnari and Koshir Hata is spent exploring the downpour. From splashing and feeling the rain on his face to admiring the wildlife who come out to enjoy the rain, each page looks at a different element of a summer rainstorm.

Originally written in Japanese, Downpour’s English translation is by Emily Balistrieri, who does well to try to capture the sound of rain for English-speaking audiences, while still retaining a sense of what Ohnari and Hata may have intended in the Japanese version. The rain is an equal character in the book and is given a voice. Best enjoyed as a read aloud to young children, some pages read like children’s poetry:

“Bada-bada-bada.

Bada-bada-bada.

Plip.

            Plip.

      Bada.

Plam-pl-plam.

      Plip. Bada-bada.

My umbrella’s a drum!”

Like many children’s books, it is the artwork that makes Downpour shine. Large double-page spreads are full of expressive detail, both of the boy who clearly revels in the rain and also the rain itself, with Ohnari and Hata showing the rain from different perspectives. The boy in his bright yellow t-shirt and matching umbrella contrasts well with the greys, whites and the blues of the rain. The rain is captured with as much energy as the boy’s dancing and, despite the colors, is never dull.

The boy looks joyous; so too does the rain.

Melanie Ho is the author of Journey to the West: He Hui, a Chinese Soprano in the World of Italian Opera.