The Rain Puddle

by Adelaide Holl, Roger Duvoisin (Illustrator)

Someone has fallen into the rain puddle! But who is it? Well, on that point everyone seems to disagree. Is it the plump hen? The turkey? The curly sheep? The lovely, fat pig? Everyone sees something different when they look down into the puddle—until, that is, all the animals look at once, and see the entire farmyard underwater! Off they run in search of help, as the wise old owl perched in a tree shakes his head and chuckles to himself.

This wonderfully silly children’s book, originally published in 1965, is ideal for reading aloud, a tale that perfectly captures the wonder of discovering the outside world.
 

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals

36 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice enough but simple story of animals looking into a puddle, each seeing their own reflection and thinking an animal has fallen in. The story was repetitive but could be enjoyable for the very young, we livened it up by giving the animals different accents. The illustrations are wonderful, lovely 60's shapes and colours, I would love these animals printed as wallpaper.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this simple tale of perception.

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hilarious book about some farm animals who find some other farm animals trapped in a rain puddle. This is really funny and full of silly characters. Beautifully drawn.

[Sydney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genre: Fiction
Grade Level: Lower Elementary (K-1)

This is a hilarious book about farm animals that see their reflection in a rain puddle and think another animal has fallen in. When the puddle dried up, the farm animals thought the other animals had safely climbed out. I really enjoyed the input of the wise owl that saw everything because he was high up in a tree watching the others. The text is very simple and the illustrations follow suit. This is definitely a book I would read to my kindergarten class. Overall, I would give it 5 stars.

[Chloe M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Modern Fantasy
K-2nd Grade
The animal characters get confused by their own reflection in the rain puddle. It's a sweet story that could help teach kids about reflections. The simple illustrations make the book stand out and this would be an enjoyable, silly story for quite a few different ages.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

I turned this into a string story and added lots of animal noises! It worked out amazingly, but the book is a bit drab on its own.

[Zachary McCoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn’t a big fan of this story, it felt like not much happened. While this is true of most children’s books it just wasn’t that fun to me. My favorite part was the texturing of the illustrations.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute story about animals seeing their images in a rain puddle and worrying about the animals they think are trapped in there. Illustrations are wonderful.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute but not deep story of a bunch of farmyard animals that think there is an animal exactly like them that's drowning in a rain puddle, but it's just their own reflections.

[The Book Sale Scrounger · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's very little to appreciate here but for the wonderful illustration, but I'm sure that's my obnoxious adult affect talking. It might be fun to read this to a little one making all of the animal noises scripted.

[Stacy Vance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great story... Kids loved the pictures.

[Sadie · Rating 5 out of 5]

gorgeous vintage illustrations