Rain – the good, the bad, and the imaginative
I’m a little tentative about declaring that spring is
finally here in Calgary. We’ve had too
many tantalizing false starts, but it’s been almost two weeks without snow and
I’ve decided to hope for the best.'
So with spring in the air… Downpour by Emily
Martin is a perfect accompaniment for the season.
It’s a gentle, poetic and imaginative reverie about a rainy
day that so saturates everything, that the colour from red poppies begins to
run, colouring various plants, animals and other things that it contacts. From its own leaves and roots to the ground
underfoot, to the beaks of nearby birds, to fields, fences and puddles, to a
happy old man’s beard, all things have the potential to turn red. A cute and curious hedgehog keeps us company
throughout this contemplation of spring and the colour red.
The grey tones of everything else illustrated really make
the red pop. The line drawings are well
suited to the poetic nature of the book, contributing to the ‘flowy’ feel of a
very grey, wet, rainy day.
And what about the now white poppies? Well our little hedgehog
tries to give them back some of their missing colour. The author includes a couple of personal
musings on the credits/copyright page on the last page that I think are very
interesting.
Poetry
lurks, especially in the rain.
Red
used to be my least favorite color.
Only
fools don’t change their minds.
Disaster
is inevitable. Watch it unfold, find
beauty.
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