The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

Johnston, Tony

Uncle Rain Cloud

32 pp. | Talewinds | February, 2001 | Trade ISBN 0-88106-371-1 $$15.95

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Fabricio VandenBroeck. Since he immigrated to Los Angeles from Mexico, Carlos's uncle is grumpy during the day because he feels insecure with "el Blah-Blah" or English. But at night, when he tells traditional Mexican stories in Spanish, he is a lot of fun. Carlos and his uncle agree to trade English lessons for Mexican stories. Atmospheric illustrations done in colored pencil and acrylics capture the mood of the story that includes some Spanish words and phrases.

Reviewer: Elena Abos Alvarez-Buiza