‘No Rain Today’ by Kristen Iten is another one of her picture books that captured my attention. The pictures help move the story along, even though I felt there could have been more of the cloud itself, since it was the main character. The children and animals are enjoying the day until rain seems imminent, so they hurry inside, and the cloud seems upset by its sudden lack of company when no one is around for it to watch over.

There is metaphorical value at work in the book as well, since, as the cloud tried to hold in its rain to prevent its friends from going inside and “leaving it” reminded me of a young child trying to hold in his or her need to go to the bathroom. Young children often do this because they are afraid of what they will miss if they leave, and the cloud is afraid of what it will miss if its “friends” are no longer outside to hang around. When the cloud realized that even the threat of rain caused its friends to hurry away, it discovered that sometimes doing what you need to do can be the best thing, because there will always be someone or something that will appreciate the effort made. There is one young girl in the story who comes out with her umbrella, waiting for the pitter-patter and drip-drop of rain, and the happiness she feels when she gets what she wants is enough to make the cloud understand that even though you can’t please everyone all of the time, there is always going to be at least someone or something that is happy with whatever you can give.

A solid and motivational story, ‘No Rain Today’ by Kristen Iten delivers a cute, relatable storyline that children and adults alike will find comfort in.

You can find ‘No Rain Today’ by Kristen Iten here.