Swedish / Sweden
Regn
(Rain)
Holmer, Anders
(text/illus.)
Stockholm: Natur & Kultur, [2018]. – [28] p.
ISBN 978-91-27-15360-8
Rain | Everyday life | Poetry
Reading age: 4+
White Ravens issue: 2018
A horse draws a plough across a field, and ravens pick at kernels on the ground. Boys, girls, and animals can be seen on a hanging bridge that spans a ravine. A newspaper floats down. A car is being repaired underneath palm trees, while a radio sings about sunshine, despite the rain falling. The titular rain is the leitmotif in this contemplative picture book, in which Anders Holmer paints everyday scenes from all over the world and adorns these with short, compact, lyrical texts. The pictures as well as the texts radiate a great peace, even as the rain pores down from the sky. Sometimes it’s only a sprinkle. At one point, a sand storm swirls by instead of rain, as a boy herds goats. The text reads: “Solen skyms av sand / fraser lätt när den lander / en mjölktand är lös” (Behind the sand, the sun shimmers / it rustles lightly as it falls / a baby tooth is loose).