Lila and the Secret of Rain

by Conway, David; Daly, Jude

• ISBN13: 9781847800350
• ISBN10: 1847800351
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-04-01
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books

Summary

This award-winning picture book tells with spare, elegant prose and poignant illustrations how Lila saves her Kenyan village by telling the sky the saddest thing she knows.

For months the sun has burned down on Lila’s village. It is too hot to gather firewood, or weed the garden. It is even too hot to milk the cow. Without rain the well will run dry and the crops will fail. Lila is so worried that when her grandfather whispers the secret of rain to her, she sets off to talk to the sky herself.

Lila and the Secret of Rain introduces the topics of natural resources and the impact that extreme weather can have on people’s lives in a tender way that children can relate to. With the added magic of folklore, the African setting sparks interest in our world’s diverse cultures.

Your heart will be drawn again and again to follow Lila in her quest to save her village with the secret of rain.

*A Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner*

Author Biography

David Conway was born in Ireland but moved to England as a baby, and has lived there ever since. David is the author of a number of picture books including The Most Important Gift of All, illustrated by Karin Littlewood. Lila and the Secret of Rain won a US Spring 2008 Parents’ Choice Gold Award.

Jude Daly lives in Cape Town, South Africa, with her husband, writer and illustrator Niki Daly. Her books include To Everything there is a Season, The Little Blue Slipper, The Elephant’s Pillow by Diana Reynolds Roome (winner of a US Parents’ Choice Silver Award), The Faraway Island by Dianne Hofmeyr, Let There Be Peace and Sivu’s Six Wishes.

Excerpts

One night Lila over heard her mama talking about the well that had dried up and the crops that were failing.

"Without water there can be no life," Lila heard her mama say.



Lila wanted so much for the sun to stop shining and for the rain to come.

But the sun did not stop shining and the rain did not come.



One evening Lila' grandfather told her a story about a man that he'd met once when he was a boy - a man who had told him the secret of rain.

"You must climb the highest mountain," said the man to Lila's grandfather, " and tell the sky the saddest thing you know.