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Rain
A poetry collection celebrating the wonders of the natural world This haiku collection will enchant both nature lovers and budding poets. The spare, lyrical text describes a series of short vignettes, each of them taking place in a different kind of rain, from thunderstorms to falling flower petals. The poems—some serious, some gently humorous—depict scenes from all over the a horse struggling to plow a field, a father changing a tire while his children play, and two friends making up after a fight. With its majestic artwork, this introduction to a classic poetic form will inspire readers to write their own haiku as they experience the amazing world around them.
32 pages, Hardcover
Published October 9, 2018
1 person is currently reading
106 people want to read
About the author
Anders Holmer
7 books5 followersAnders Holmer är bildkonstnär och arkitekt från Bohuslän. Han skriver och illustrerar finstämt humoristiska berättelser fyllda med egenartade och underfundiga karaktärer.
Hans titlar Allting händer, Regn och Ingenting händer har uppmärksammats både i Sverige och utomlands, nominerats till Augustpriset och Elsa Beskow-plaketten. Regn valdes till NY Original Art Exhibit, White Raven samt av dPictus till 100 outstanding picture books.
Hans titlar Allting händer, Regn och Ingenting händer har uppmärksammats både i Sverige och utomlands, nominerats till Augustpriset och Elsa Beskow-plaketten. Regn valdes till NY Original Art Exhibit, White Raven samt av dPictus till 100 outstanding picture books.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
October 21, 2022
A collection of haiku accompanied by beautiful illustrations about what happens when it rains. There are scenes from all over the world showing different climates, peoples and animals with the theme that we really need the rain but it's lovely when it stops.
May 8, 2025
You never know what will appeal and I certainly had no idea that a book of haiku would please and hold the attention of my almost four-year-old grandson as well as this did. (He picked this out on his own!)
Each two-page spread contains a haiku poem with an illustration of it. It some cases, it depicts the entire poem and other times, just a facet, but all of the drawings feature water coming from the sky, in the form of rain, drizzle, sleet or snow in delightfully unique scenes, many in steep mountain landscapes. They also each contain a multitude of animals and/or birds: dogs, cats, alpacas, mountain goats, yaks, horses, bears, roosters, puffins, seagulls, reindeer, wolves, storks, llamas, pigs, deer, turtles, squirrels and ducks. I may have missed one or two, but my grandson enjoyed pointing out and identifying them; he loves animals.
It is a book to be read, studied, contemplated and just enjoyed ... over and over. Different and very nice!
Each two-page spread contains a haiku poem with an illustration of it. It some cases, it depicts the entire poem and other times, just a facet, but all of the drawings feature water coming from the sky, in the form of rain, drizzle, sleet or snow in delightfully unique scenes, many in steep mountain landscapes. They also each contain a multitude of animals and/or birds: dogs, cats, alpacas, mountain goats, yaks, horses, bears, roosters, puffins, seagulls, reindeer, wolves, storks, llamas, pigs, deer, turtles, squirrels and ducks. I may have missed one or two, but my grandson enjoyed pointing out and identifying them; he loves animals.
It is a book to be read, studied, contemplated and just enjoyed ... over and over. Different and very nice!
January 8, 2019
Swedish artist, architect and poet, Anders Holmers, presents here twelve haikus set in front of a series sweeping, dramatic backdrops and bound my the similar theme of rain. Pressed between two sets of endpapers that display white sheets of rain against a light-grey skyline, Holmer's poetry crosses the globe with each of his double-page spreads depicting lives that break stereotypical norms and bring different meanings to the impact on rain upon them. This is a beautiful little compilation; Holmer's artwork offers details and moments that will bring us back again and again and his words are like whispers of open moments that bind us all.
October 22, 2018
Haiku is a small but perfect way to capture life in words, and Anders Holmer is a master of both haiku and haiku illustrations. In just a few syllables, Holmer uses haiku to share both the hope of life and its inevitable destruction.
Beneath ashes are
seeds for a new forest that
might burn someday too.
Holmer's haiku captures the deep truths to be found in paradox and in the interrelatedness of life.
The horse dreams of oats
while he is plowing the field---
crows carry off seeds.
The illustrations take the reader quickly and quietly into little vignettes of life all over the world.
This is a beautiful and magical book.
Beneath ashes are
seeds for a new forest that
might burn someday too.
Holmer's haiku captures the deep truths to be found in paradox and in the interrelatedness of life.
The horse dreams of oats
while he is plowing the field---
crows carry off seeds.
The illustrations take the reader quickly and quietly into little vignettes of life all over the world.
This is a beautiful and magical book.
November 5, 2018
Underbar vuxenbok...
November 29, 2018
Rain, written and illustrated by Anders Holmer, is as refreshing as a rainstorm. As a former kindergarten and 2nd grade teacher, I can envision children poring over the detailed paintings finding familiar childhood activities and being introduced to a variety of cultures. The paintings tell stories in and of themselves, but the haikus add a poetic dimension children will easily relate to. The teacher in me immediately saw applications for the classroom or as a read aloud, such as having students form a picture in their minds as they hear the poem and then read it again as they view Holmer’s art work. It would make a great lesson on how the pictures and text support each other, and how each reader brings so much to the experience the author and illustrator provides. This is a gentle, calming book that I highly recommend.
October 15, 2018
The gentle Haiku poetry coupled with delicate illustrations depicting scenes from all over the world bring rest to the readers mind— and plenty to ponder. I wish there would have been more pages to the book!
October 15, 2020
A lovely thought-provoking picture book to use with Key Stage 2 children exploring another culture and lifestyle. I would thoroughly enjoy using this book in the classroom as I think it could inspire lots of interesting learning relating to literacy and topic.
December 6, 2019
Beautiful words and art
February 16, 2021
Rain is a collection of haikus with complementary illustrations showing different scenes across the world. Each haiku is related to the next due to the theme of rain throughout.
This would be a good book for introducing haikus to children as you could read the book, and let them see the text and encourage them to comment on what they notice about the text.
This would be a good book for introducing haikus to children as you could read the book, and let them see the text and encourage them to comment on what they notice about the text.
February 7, 2018
Stilla. Poetisk.
October 5, 2025
The prose of this picture book is comprised of the Japanese haiku which would expose pupils a new form of literacy and broaden their knowledge of poem types. Some of the haiku's are serious, whereas some are funny and they are all accompanied by a double page spread of illustrations.
The pages of the book had a tactile feel to them and the illustrations appeared to be painted on the page. This could be used to look at different art forms and how art can be used to further emphasise the point of a written piece.
The pages of the book had a tactile feel to them and the illustrations appeared to be painted on the page. This could be used to look at different art forms and how art can be used to further emphasise the point of a written piece.
November 13, 2021
Vackert för alla åldrar ❤️🤩
December 30, 2020
This is a great book of haiku! I really enjoyed the multicultural aspect of the book!
October 15, 2018
It ticked all the right boxes for me before I even opened the cover: nature, poetry (strongly accessible haiku, in fact), breathtaking art, and a diverse world perspective.
Even if you enlarge the cover, you may struggle to view the minuscule falling particles in the image. These and other suggestions of rain in the various scenes throughout the book are "raining down" on the characters and situations. The characters are as diverse as the locales, and individuals feel to me to be totally absorbed in distinct stories.
On this cover image, for example, those gray-green slashes poking through the snow are early evidence of lichen underlying an arctic/tundra region. The snow cover, clothing, and transportation methods suggest that the moisture from above may be of the slushy-sleety variety, the type that stings the skin and renders old snow surfaces as slick as ice, literally.
And yet, after surviving yet another long, dark, frozen season, such a rain swells the heart:
"Calf licking the first
fresh green wedges of lichen.
And soon, butterflies!"
Like this poem, each in this book is finely crafted, adhering to the rigid expectations of Haiku, a traditional Japanese form:
Three unrhymed lines (5-7-5 syllables)
Total of 17 syllables
Strong imagery
Often nature scenes
Capturing a specific moment or emotion in time
In this book, creator Holmer has mastered all of the above while developing a series of global scenes that underscore the universal nature of the moments and emotions portrayed. Young readers and writers will enjoy and be inspired to write their own haiku- a seemingly simple challenge. If that happens, I'd urge you to emphasize content over syllable count. (There are many poetry scholars who accept adaptations to the pattern, although the three line, seventeen syllable total are useful guides.)
Holmer declares RAIN as the unifying theme for this series. Rain is unbiquitous in every climate, including desert zones. It offers a common thread among all human experience. The emotional journeys of these scenes also have a commonality to them, with each double spread revealing relationships, struggles, and suggesting open-ended resolutions. Independent writers could well imagine a story from each of the twelve spreads, guided by the haiku text, and then harvest details from images on the page while imagining a before and after related to the scene.
I wouldn't dare include more haiku from the collection, because doing so without the book in hand would fail to deliver the full impact their power. The conceptual design and flow of emotional content from scene to scene is enhanced by the book's design. The tall trim size allows for double spreads to open as in a landscape display of artwork (which each is). Most use color tones that are subdued but surprisingly intense, whether in the depths of a rainforest river or a petal-strewn Japanese garden.
The scenes (puffins near a lighthouse, running horses on a plain, a forest fire with fleeing animals, and so many more) unfold with quiet authority, providing enough realism to spark background knowledge of climate zones (and perhaps some geography research), yet they provide a slightly abstracted quality that is inherent in the poetry form, allowing space for each reader to enter and inhabit the pages and the poems.
Rain is a human experience, as are its consequences (floods, droughts, crops, famine, dismay, delight). It is a resource and a necessity. After reading and re-reading this haiku collection, many times over, and after sitting with the lives revealed in scene-after-scene, I'm convinced the same can be said about the new picture book, RAIN. For your own reading and for young readers of any age, make it a point to get and share this book. Return to it often. It is both a resource and a necessity.
Even if you enlarge the cover, you may struggle to view the minuscule falling particles in the image. These and other suggestions of rain in the various scenes throughout the book are "raining down" on the characters and situations. The characters are as diverse as the locales, and individuals feel to me to be totally absorbed in distinct stories.
On this cover image, for example, those gray-green slashes poking through the snow are early evidence of lichen underlying an arctic/tundra region. The snow cover, clothing, and transportation methods suggest that the moisture from above may be of the slushy-sleety variety, the type that stings the skin and renders old snow surfaces as slick as ice, literally.
And yet, after surviving yet another long, dark, frozen season, such a rain swells the heart:
"Calf licking the first
fresh green wedges of lichen.
And soon, butterflies!"
Like this poem, each in this book is finely crafted, adhering to the rigid expectations of Haiku, a traditional Japanese form:
Three unrhymed lines (5-7-5 syllables)
Total of 17 syllables
Strong imagery
Often nature scenes
Capturing a specific moment or emotion in time
In this book, creator Holmer has mastered all of the above while developing a series of global scenes that underscore the universal nature of the moments and emotions portrayed. Young readers and writers will enjoy and be inspired to write their own haiku- a seemingly simple challenge. If that happens, I'd urge you to emphasize content over syllable count. (There are many poetry scholars who accept adaptations to the pattern, although the three line, seventeen syllable total are useful guides.)
Holmer declares RAIN as the unifying theme for this series. Rain is unbiquitous in every climate, including desert zones. It offers a common thread among all human experience. The emotional journeys of these scenes also have a commonality to them, with each double spread revealing relationships, struggles, and suggesting open-ended resolutions. Independent writers could well imagine a story from each of the twelve spreads, guided by the haiku text, and then harvest details from images on the page while imagining a before and after related to the scene.
I wouldn't dare include more haiku from the collection, because doing so without the book in hand would fail to deliver the full impact their power. The conceptual design and flow of emotional content from scene to scene is enhanced by the book's design. The tall trim size allows for double spreads to open as in a landscape display of artwork (which each is). Most use color tones that are subdued but surprisingly intense, whether in the depths of a rainforest river or a petal-strewn Japanese garden.
The scenes (puffins near a lighthouse, running horses on a plain, a forest fire with fleeing animals, and so many more) unfold with quiet authority, providing enough realism to spark background knowledge of climate zones (and perhaps some geography research), yet they provide a slightly abstracted quality that is inherent in the poetry form, allowing space for each reader to enter and inhabit the pages and the poems.
Rain is a human experience, as are its consequences (floods, droughts, crops, famine, dismay, delight). It is a resource and a necessity. After reading and re-reading this haiku collection, many times over, and after sitting with the lives revealed in scene-after-scene, I'm convinced the same can be said about the new picture book, RAIN. For your own reading and for young readers of any age, make it a point to get and share this book. Return to it often. It is both a resource and a necessity.
January 10, 2019
This review was originally written for The Baby Bookworm. Visit us for new picture books reviews daily!
Hello, friends! Our book today is Rain by Anders Holmer, a lovely look at nature and life in haiku form.
Using the format of the traditional poetry form, each spread offers an expanse of scenery from around the world and a glimpse into the lives of those that inhabit it. A group of humans and reindeer cross a tundra, the youngest calf stopping to discover fresh lichen. A song plays on a car radio, but no one hears it; the driver is changing the tire and his children are greeting a dog. As cherry blossom petals flutter down, two friends are struck by the beauty and quickly resolve a spat, enjoying moment together instead. The reader journeys around the world, showing how different the world can be, even when it often comes down to something we all share, like rain.
Soft, simple, and beautiful. This book had such a wonderfully calming look and tone, using the haiku format to tell each story richly yet with an economy of words. The art uses light and dark to perfectly set the stage while pops of color, details, and movement make the subjects come alive. It inspires the reader to examine each scene carefully, and allows the art and spare text to evoke the desired emotion. The length is great, and JJ and I really enjoyed it. A soothing meditation on a wider world, and it’s Baby Bookworm approved.
Be sure to check out The Baby Bookworm for more reviews!
January 18, 2019
Haiku tells the story of different types of rain in this poetry picture book. The haiku are all about nature, some about rain directly and others about other things like falling newspapers or cascading petals. The poems form a series of vignettes that show different parts of the world and various environments from the arctic to the Himalayas to the desert. They are bound together with the rhythms of the poems and the journey together to explore rain and our world.
The haiku poems range from solemn to merry, some carrying serious weight and others lighter. They mirror the weather, some with lightning and dark clouds while others fill with pink petals and friendship. The illustrations themselves are large and have the feel of traditional tales mixed with a modern edge. They show different parts of the world and take readers on a fascinating journey as rain descends on each page and yet each type of rain is different from the others.
A skilled book of haiku that explores our wide world and the nature we find there. Appropriate for ages 6-9.
The haiku poems range from solemn to merry, some carrying serious weight and others lighter. They mirror the weather, some with lightning and dark clouds while others fill with pink petals and friendship. The illustrations themselves are large and have the feel of traditional tales mixed with a modern edge. They show different parts of the world and take readers on a fascinating journey as rain descends on each page and yet each type of rain is different from the others.
A skilled book of haiku that explores our wide world and the nature we find there. Appropriate for ages 6-9.
December 28, 2018
Beautiful haiku, somewhat random in subject and geography, but consistently lovely. Illustrations match perfectly.
With a chaotic swirl of puffins, murres(?), and rain of course, as the accompanying artwork, my favorite might be: "Slowly the boat drifts/drifts away from the lighthouse/never tied it up."
Also great, with illustration of fleeing animals and hopeful observation treehouse: "Beneath ashes are/seeds for a new forest that/might burn someday too."
One more. Picture shows sodden family and useless car with flat tire. Kids are exploring and are greeting local pets while parent (Mom) looks wearily at the spare. "The car radio/plays a song about the sun/but no one hears it."
With a chaotic swirl of puffins, murres(?), and rain of course, as the accompanying artwork, my favorite might be: "Slowly the boat drifts/drifts away from the lighthouse/never tied it up."
Also great, with illustration of fleeing animals and hopeful observation treehouse: "Beneath ashes are/seeds for a new forest that/might burn someday too."
One more. Picture shows sodden family and useless car with flat tire. Kids are exploring and are greeting local pets while parent (Mom) looks wearily at the spare. "The car radio/plays a song about the sun/but no one hears it."
January 6, 2021
זייער א פֿײַנע זאַמלונג פֿון פּאָעזיע אוינעם ״הײַקו״-פֿאָרמאַט. די אדאַפּטירונגען אויף יידיש איבערגעזעצט פֿון ניקולײַ אָלניאַנסקי איז זייער שיין און ערנסט.
די בילדער דערציילן אויך בײַ זיך אַליין און מע קען אין זיי זיך פֿאַרבלאָנדזשען אָבער:: אַ פּאָר פֿון די בילדער זײַנען אפשר א ביסל מו סטערעאָטיפיש לויט מײַן מיינונג. לדגמה די ״יאַפּאַנער״ מיט זייער א טיפישע פריזער-סטיל וואָס מענטשן אין ״מרב״ האט באניצט צו אילוסטרירן אז מע מאָלט א מענטש פון יאפאן אדער כינע.
סײַווי: א פארגעניגן אז ס׳איז ארויס אויף יידיש
די בילדער דערציילן אויך בײַ זיך אַליין און מע קען אין זיי זיך פֿאַרבלאָנדזשען אָבער:: אַ פּאָר פֿון די בילדער זײַנען אפשר א ביסל מו סטערעאָטיפיש לויט מײַן מיינונג. לדגמה די ״יאַפּאַנער״ מיט זייער א טיפישע פריזער-סטיל וואָס מענטשן אין ״מרב״ האט באניצט צו אילוסטרירן אז מע מאָלט א מענטש פון יאפאן אדער כינע.
סײַווי: א פארגעניגן אז ס׳איז ארויס אויף יידיש
October 9, 2019
This is a beautiful book which has reminded me about the power of haikus in capturing a moment and a feeling, immortalising something that may have been unnoticed. Holmer shines a short spotlight on lots of different people experiencing rain in different ways and forms all over the world: from the drifting ashes of burnt trees to a forest of petals floating in the breeze. The language in this is so potent in showing the impact that a few careful words can have. An inspiring piece of art.
October 22, 2018
Beautiful and engaging. My favorite part about reading this with my kids was the pause between reading the haiku and turning the page. We all took time to soak in the poem and notice tiny details in the illustrations.
August 16, 2019
My four year old and I love this book. There is so much to talk and giggle about! Excellent haikus and illustrations!!! What a treasure. I am so glad the Bosler Memorial library chose to put this book on display!
October 21, 2020
Rain is a collection of Haikus illustrated to depict a variety of scenes across the globe. I really liked the way that each of the very different scenarios was linked by the common theme and experience of rain.
October 8, 2018
A sumptuously illustrated collection of haiku celebrating nature. Originally published in Sweden.
October 12, 2018
A unique story told in Haiku about different versions of rain. Would make a great read aloud for a poetry unit.
January 9, 2019
So pretty. And the haiku accompanying each two-page spread was perfect to describe the scene. A seamless blend of poetry and illustration.
January 22, 2019
I loved this book of haikus! The illustrations are beautiful and I like that they are scenes from all over the world.
February 4, 2019
Showing rain/snow in different cultural scenes with Haiku for each scene. Beautifully illustrated.
March 18, 2019
This book of haiku's is really beautiful, it's delicate and subtle and quite moving. With beautiful illustrations and a dream like feel to every page, definitely recommended!
April 18, 2019
A trip around the world while it’s raining. Written in haiku, it would be a great mentor text for poetry units.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews