Synopsis
IT'S RAINING CATS AND DOGS! PIGLETS AND BABY BEARS, TOO! Just the right weather for a girl who wants a pet and just the right book to celebrate a new arrival.
Zoe wants a pet more than anything in the whole world. Then on the night before her aunt Ellie’s baby shower, it actually starts raining cats and dogs . . . and ducklings and piglets, too. Or does it? This charming book by a favorite author and illustrator is the perfect gift to celebrate a new arrival—human or otherwise.
Publishers Weekly
Zalben doesn't leave much to readers' imagination in this meticulously inked but rather woolly tale of wish fulfillment. Zoe wants a pet: “She'd stare at dogs on street corners, cats curled up in windows, and squirrels in the garden.” Her yearnings conflate with her anticipation of an aunt's upcoming baby shower, producing the book's centerpiece, an eight-page dream about a downpour consisting entirely of adorable animal babies: “Rabbits rained on rooftops. Lambs lolled on lawns. Turtles tangled traffic!” Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs it ain't: the watercolors are pretty, but a teensy-weensy sense of scale makes the images feel overworked and visually befuddling—even young eyes may need to squint. All the loose ends are tied up in short order: the shower is a success and following a thunderstorm, a stray puppy suddenly appears at her aunt's house, ready to be adopted. Zalben (Brenda Berman, Wedding Expert) gets in some great lines—in answer to the question of whether the baby is a boy or a girl, Zoe's aunt answers, “I hope so”—but the deus ex machina ending is unsatisfying. Ages 3–7. (Mar.)