The Falling Raindrop

As a storm rumbles and flashes, something wonderful happens up in the clouds: a raindrop begins his journey to earth, thrilled and delighted to be flying. But when flying begins to feel like falling, the raindrop can’t enjoy himself for fear that a big change is coming.
 
After hitting a campfire on the ground, the raindrop begins his journey back to the clouds as a wisp of steam. Readers will cheer for the little raindrop, experiencing his joys as well as his worries. This simple story uses spare text and art to explain the science of the water cycle, while happily showing that good things can result from change.

Publishers Weekly

This debut, the collaborative project of two advertising executives, has a crisp, carefully produced feel, and it delivers its message with razor-sharp effectiveness. The illustrations are small vignettes that appear in the center of cream-colored pages, forcing readers to pay attention. At the center of the story is a pale blue cartoon raindrop. He spends most of the story plummeting toward Earth, as streaks and droplets peel off him, demonstrating his speed. Initially, he delights in his flight (“I’m alive!” he cries, with an open smile. “He felt like he was flying as he whizzed down through the clouds”), but his joy soon turns to fear that he’s hurtling to his doom. And in the process: “He missed out on the fun of skimming through the clouds. He missed out on the joy of riding on the wind.” It’s a metaphor for the way so many adults live: fearful and worried about death. Do children worry this way, too? Some do, and they’ll take comfort in the unexpected fate of the raindrop. Ages 3–6. (Mar.)

NEIL JOHNSON is a director for an international advertising firm in Singapore. About The Falling Raindrop Neil says, “My son was petrified of lightning, thunder, and rain. One afternoon, standing at the window while it poured outside, he asked me if the raindrops were scared, too. The answer became this story.”
 
JOEL CHIN is an art director for the same advertising firm. He and Neil worked on this book while putting in long hours “bouncing” ad campaign ideas. Growing up in tropical Asia has allowed Joel to experience rain showers almost daily. He says that the raindrop “shows how one should live life to the fullest, a simple metaphor for life.”