When Molly and Sophie take the bus home from school on a rainy afternoon, Sophie encourages her initially glum friend to celebrate the rain, challenging her to see “a face with raindrop freckles” in a puddle and “rafts for ants” in the leaves floating in the gutter. Molly enters into Sophie’s celebratory mood, hearing tap dancers in the raindrops on the bus roof, and feeling the rain drops as “kisses from the sky.” “What’s so great about being dry?” Molly concludes, “I love the rain!” The lively and colorful watercolor sketches may be the best part of this earnest celebration of the joys of rain. “What’s so great about being dry?” Well, to put a damper on the exuberance, being wet can be cold and uncomfortable, a thought this book does not entertain. This overly determined splash-dash celebration of rain doesn’t quite float as either a story or a mood piece. (Picture book. 4-7)
