A RAINY DAY WITH HEDGEHOG AND RABBIT

Two sweetly innocent friends discover rain.

As Hedgehog and Rabbit enjoy their garden together, a drop of water lands on Rabbit’s ear. Scared by this, he hides in his hollow log. A drop of water also lands on Hedgehog; in his case it tickles and makes him laugh, so he goes looking for Rabbit to tell him. In both cases they believe someone threw the water at them, and now they are out to find the culprit. As they emerge from the hollow log, Rabbit notices something strange: The sky is no longer blue—“it’s…it’s lost its color!” Confused, they wonder whether “whoever threw water at us also took the color out of the sky?” There is definitely a mystery to be solved here. Humor abounds both in the text and in the bright, cartoon illustrations, especially as the friends eventually arrive at the owls’ home. The owls suggest rain might have thrown the water, and “You can’t do anything except take cover and wait for it to get tired and stop.” Still not fully understanding what rain is, the friends take cover and wait, eventually falling asleep. When they wake up “They’d done it! The sun was back in the middle of the bright blue sky.” Translated by Dawlatly from the Spanish Erizo y Conejo descubren la lluvia, this rendering captures the charming silliness of the original story.

Young readers will fall for these endearing friends.