The Rain Puddle

Rain Puddle
Adelaide Holl
illustrations by Roger Duvoisin
Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1965

Books, animals and water are my son's three great passions, and lucky for me, The Rain Puddle has them all. Kind of a Chicken Little story, yet instead of the sky falling, this chicken takes a drink from a puddle, sees her own reflection, and mistakes it for another chicken. Her rush to save the poor poultry from a watery grave has a domino affect on the other animals that goes a little something like this...

Turkey was eating corn in the barnyard.
"Come at once!" called plump hen.
"A hen is in the rain puddle."
Away turkey went to see for himself.
"Gobble-obble-obble!"
he cried when he looked in.
"It is not a plump hen.
It is a big, bright turkey gobbler!"

And so on and so on until it seems the entire barnyard is drowning. Funny stuff, and made even funnier for my son as a three-year-old because it makes him feel like he is in on the joke. Like he somehow has figured it out and outsmarted the animals, and that really gets his chest puffed up. There's nothing like watching my kid strut after a few readings of this one. Priceless stuff.

Also by:
Veronica and the Birthday Present
Petunia, Beware!
A Child's Garden of Verses
Petunia
Donkey-donkey
White Snow Bright Snow
Petunia's Christmas
The Old Bullfrog