Review by Booklist Review
Is it cotton candy or a cumulus cloud? Rapunzel's long hair or a cirrus cloud? As two rabbits express different perspectives on cloud-watching, one tends toward imaginative or fanciful interpretations while the other is ready to supply hard science. Putting the scientific facts within the narrative makes it easy to see how cloud names directly relate to their sizes and shapes. In addition to the dialogue, additional facts appear as inset boxes. Several familiar fairy tales and nursery rhymes are referenced, adding another element of identification fun. The watercolor illustrations are well suited to conveying the varying nature of different clouds. Although one rabbit starts out representing knowledge and the other, fantasy, eventually they both demonstrate that they can appreciate imagination as well as factual information. An expanded section at the end of the book provides further information, describing how clouds form, illustrating the 10 main types of clouds, and including a diagram of the water cycle. Clever and well-executed, this tale is perfect for weather studies or story times.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Via two insightful rabbits and a backdrop of freely washed blue sky, Freedman (Tiny Dino) fashions a story of dual perception that both catalogs cloud types and contrasts two ways of seeing the world. One variation, as embodied by a bunny whose head is often turned skyward, involves imaginative perception: "Ooh, that cloud looks like cotton candy." The other, as conveyed by a spectacle-wearing bunny sometimes toting a book, involves acquiring and disseminating information: "That is not cotton candy. I see a CUMULUS cloud." Undeterred by fact, the imaginative bunny continues observing: "Look at this cloud! I see a cozy blanket." The second bunny notes, about the stratus cloud: "A cold and wet blanket, perhaps." As this back and forth continues, small inset boxes define each cloud type, explaining the Latinate terms, each of which Freedman's watercolor paintings depict clearly and recognizably. When the sky's color begins to change, and the rabbits are caught in a thunderstorm despite the bespectacled bunny's warning, the atmospheric event drives a momentary reversal between the two. Creative imagination and scientific intelligence need not be exclusive, suggests this gently educational book that resists simple caricature. An author's note and more about clouds concludes. Ages 4--8. (Mar.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The scoop on clouds, led by two long-eared skywatchers trading observations and outlooks. "Rapunzel! Rapunzel! Let down your hair!" cries one plushy little white rabbit, gesturing theatrically at the sky. Responds a second bunny, with eyeglasses: "Those are CIRRUS clouds, and they are basically a lot of microscopic ice crystals." That's just one of several similar exchanges beneath gathering cumulus clouds of various sorts, but when storm clouds deliver a mighty BOOM! of thunder, the roles reverse, and it's the one without glasses delivering the cerebral disquisition on cumulonimbus while the other squeaks about a "humongous monster!" They are, of course, both right…as readers able to let their imaginations roam and also absorb Freedman's unusually expansive gallery of cloud types will be well equipped to understand. Along with the pleasures of viewing diaphanous watercolor portraits of the 10 main types of clouds and less common sorts ranging from virga and lenticularis to mammatus and wavelike Kelvin--Helmholtz, Freedman offers additional facts in inset boxes, plus lucid schematic views of how clouds form and of the whole water cycle to boot. "There is so much to learn about clouds!" marvels one bunny. And indeed, so much to learn about the world and how we perceive it. Cirrus-ly great. (selected resources, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 5-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
