The Rain Door - Softcover

Russell Hoban is the author of many famous novels, including Turtle Diary and Riddley Walker, which won the John W. Campbell Award for science fiction. He also wrote over 50 children's books, including such classics as The Mouse and His Child, The Sea-Thing Child and, most recently, Rosie's Magic Horse. Born in Pennsylvania in 1925, he moved in 1969 to London, where he lived until his death in 2011. Quentin Blake is one of the world's foremost illustrators, particularly renowned for his collaboration with writers such as Russell Hoban, Michael Rosen, Joan Aiken and Roald Dahl. His books have won numerous awards, including the Whitbread Prize, the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration. In 1999 he was appointed the first Children's Laureate, in 2005 was created a CBE and in 2013 received a knighthood for his services to illustration. He lives in London.

Kindergarten-Grade 3On a hot summer Thursday young Harry discovers the rain door and enters to find an old iron tank used by the rag-and-bone man as a cloud catcher. To scare off the lion that is frightening the man's horse, Lightning, Harry begins to build a mechanical dinosaur. It takes lots of hard work and ingenuity on Harry's part before the rag-and-bone man is able to coax Lightning, who is pulling his junk wagon, to roar across the vast sky, thus bringing the relief of rain to the parched earth below. Accompanied by Blake's cartoon-style illustrations, this story will prove to be a bit vague and confusing, and not particularly appealing, to most young readers.Bonnie Wheatley, Ravenscroft Lower School, Raleigh, N.C.
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