A Rainy Day By: Sandra Markle (NonFiction)

A Rainy Day by Sandra Markle is a great childrens book discussing rain and what happens on a rainy day. This book is about a girl who sets out to explore a rainy day. It starts out explaining what happens before it rains, such as gray clouds appearing and wind picking up. It discusses which animals come out or stay out during the rain and which ones return to safer dry places. It also discusses what happens to everyday things that we see outside such as the pavement getting darker and cars and leaves looking shiny. This book does a good job at describing how rain forms in clouds in a simple, easy to understand manner. It also discusses what hapepns after it rains, for example the sun comes out and the rain runs off into rivers, streams and lakes or is evaporated back into the air. It describes how the process will then start all over again. I think this would be a great illustrative book to show to students when discussing science topics such as the water cycle or rain and how it is formed. It gives students a simpler way of comprehending information as well as give them pictures to help understand what happens when its raining outside. I think it is important for simple books such as these to be used in helping students understand bigger topics, in this case the water cycle.