“It’s raining, it’s pouring,
the Old Man is snoring,
He went to be with a cold in his head,
and he didn’t get up in the morning.
Rain, rain go away,
Little Girl wants to Play.”

This is a story based on the above nursery rhyme. It’s raining and thundering very loudly. Mother tells Little Girl that the thunder is because Old Man, living in the clouds has a cold and is coughing. Little Girl decides to go up into the clouds to help Old Man get better.

Little girl gets a really tall latter and climbs up through the kitchen ceiling, into the upstairs bedroom and then up through the roof. She climbs and climbs up into the clouds. When she gets off the ladder, there is conveniently a sign pointing the way to Old Man’s house. She talks to Old Man and sees he really is sick. He is also a giant.

Little Girl says, “my mom gives me hot honey and lemon to drink when I’ve got a cold.” Old Man cried his reply, “but I haven’t got a mother.” Little Girl excuses herself and says that she’ll be back. She climbs all the way down to the kitchen and her mom makes a wheelbarrow full of the hot lemon drink. Little Girl climbs all the way back up pulling the wheelbarrow tied to a rope behind her.

I really enjoyed this story. I loved the interaction with Little Girl and Old Man. The illustrations were beautiful and went well with the story. I especially liked the picture of Old Man drinking directly from the wheel barrel.

The actually nursery rhyme was different from the one I learned as a child. The first part was the same but another line was added after “snoring”. It went, “he bumped his his head and went to bed and didn’t get up until morning.” I liked this version better. This is another children’s book that I highly recommend.

If you would like to participate in Short Story Mondays or just find out about some great short stories, go to John of The Book Mine Set. He has a short story review every Monday and a place for you to link your short story reviews. Come join in the fun!

It was the first day of spring and an Inuit girl, Allashua, living in the Arctic decided to go fishing. Her mother said, “don’t go fishing on the sea ice. Under the sea ice live Qallupilluit. They grab children who aren’t with their parents.” Allashua agreed, saying: “a promise is a promise.”

Allashua did go fishing on the sea ice and she taunted the Qallupilluit. She caught many fish and then, all of a sudden she heard a voice. There, “between her and the shore” were the Qallupilluit. They grabbed her and dragged her under the sea ice where they live. I can’t tell you anymore because I don’t want to rick giving spoilers.

This story is told in beautiful prose. This was an excellent collaboration between Robert Munsch and Michael Kusugak. Kusugak grew up in the Arctic. The Inuit spend much time on the sea ice and made up the story about the Qallupilluit to keep their children away from danger. The illustrations are in vibrant colour and go perfectly with the words. Highly recommended! This is another book that your children will want to read over and over.