I thought it would be the perfect time to read Thunderstorm by Arthur Geisert after our recent storm here in Southern California. Thunderstorm is a (mostly) wordless story book that chronicles a particularly squally day in the rural Midwest. There is no narrative except for time stamps at the bottom of each page, showing the progress of the day. I love how Geisert uses line to depict the movement, energy and mood of the storm and the flurry of activity it produces in the course of one day in a prairie town. It provides a wonderfully detailed perspective of the countryside that is invaluable for my kids to see since we live in a mostly suburban setting. There is a richness of rural terrain and a great deal of new words associated with the rustic and agrarian way of life that, for now, my children might only learn from books and stories like this one. I try to read books about different parts of the country and world to my children to increase their background knowledge, which will hopefully diversify their point of view and support their reading comprehension later on in school. Our next acquisition of Geisert’s works will probably be Country Road ABC.
Also, don’t miss the interesting note about the illustrations on the book’s back cover!