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.
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.
Poems I've Written
These poems connect to this book in topic, theme, or form—great for text-to-text connections!
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