Awards & Honors

Starred Booklist review
Shelf Awareness Best Books of the Week

Zap! Clap! Boom! The Story of a Thunderstorm

Written by Laura Purdie Salas
Illustrated by Elly MacKay
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2023
ISBN: 978-1547602254 40 pages

Description

Follow along as the weather changes, from a blue-sky day to a brewing storm, from a brewing storm to a dazzling downpour, and from a dazzling downpour to the breathtaking moment when the sky emits a... ZAP! CLAP! BOOM!

Sunny day sits warm and dry.
No wind,
no rain,
no stormy sky.

Morning's calm.
Outside is still.
A blue-forever day,

until...

Journal Reviews

The fluid, rhyming text offers some basic facts about thunderstorms; the well-researched back matter presents a more detailed account...[T]his picture book offers several opportunities for kids to chime in on the repeated zaps, claps, and booms.

—Booklist, Carolyn Phelan

A crashing success.

—Kirkus Reviews

The book is a perfect read-aloud…Don’t miss the thunder science section at the end—a gift.

—School Library Journal

It begs to be read aloud.

—The Horn Book

Salas’ text is lively and lyrical…With eye-catching art and lines that roll off the tongue, this book would be well-suited to raucous but stealthily informative science-based story hour.

—Bulltin of the Center for Children's Books

Salas imbues the stormy scene with a Halloweeny menace: “Wind blows fiercely,/ howls/ and shrieks./ The world/ groans slowly,/ shivers,/ creaks”; MacKay uses bruise-like purples and blues to capture nature at its fiercest.

—Shelf Awareness

Videos

Playlist

3 Videos

Zap! Clap! Boom! Book Trailer

0:44

Surprise! What showed up in the art?

2:19

Minnesota Lightning Storm

0:05

Downloadable Activities

Storm Life Cycle

Download

Photo Gallery

About to read Zap! Clap! Boom! at a St. Paul Saints game

More for Educators or Writers

How this Book Got Started

I grew up in Florida, and I loved the frequent summer thunderstorms! When I started writing rhyming nonfiction, thunderstorms was one of the first topics I thought of. I wrote this manuscript in 2008, but it didn't sell to a publisher until 2018. It finally became a gorgeous picture book (thank you, Elly MacKay) in 2023! Picture book publishing is really difficult for impatient writers.