I was absolutely thrilled to received a digital copy of Abi Cushman's debut book, Soaked and I'm even more excited to share it with all of you!
I mean, just look at that cover! From the bear's expression to the drippy, melty, ruined ice cream cone, the rabbit and the badger who clearly feel differently than bear... I just have to open this book and find out why!
From Penguin's website:
A Hula-Hooping moose, a badger with a bumblebee umbrella, a rabbit in a cashmere sweater, and a very wet bear star in this unpredictable and laugh-out-loud picture book in which having fun gets the best of a grumpy bear.
Sounds hilarious, right? Well it is! I think what I love very most about this book is the relationship between text and illustrations. Abi is an author-illustrator, and she does such an amazing job of getting the narrative to work so well with the images. So often, the joke really comes home through the picture, and I love that. My girls especially love that.
Soaked follows grumpy Bear who is NOT happy about being caught in a rain storm. Rabbit, Badger, and Moose all seem to take to the weather quickly and naturally, but Bear is tougher to be persuaded. After all, the rain ruins all of his favorite things! But after watching his friends enjoy the weather, Bear finally gives in and realizes that if can be fun to be SOAKED.
I adored this book! It's seriously so very timely. Our summer is NOT going as planned. A Disney and beach trip was canceled. A broken leg means that we can't even go swimming in our own pool. Covid means we aren't going out to the local trampoline parks, splash pads, community pools, bowling alleys, friends houses, and all the other fun things we would usually do in a summer. It hovers around 110 degrees here in AZ during July and August. So we are inside, at home, and alone. So like Bear, we could definitely have a bad attitude about the weather, our circumstances, or our ruined plans. But we've definitely tried to make the best of it all and fill our days with fun.
In honor of Bear, and because of our missed beach trip, we built an indoor sandcastle after reading Soaked and it was really fun! Do we build block castles all the time? Yes. But because this one was specifically a "sandcastle," it seemed even more fun! We built it and rebuilt it, pretended to lounge on the beach, and talked about how we could make the best out of our change of plans. We decided we could have a staycation right at home. And it made for a really great day!
Soaked is a great book to help kids look on the bright side and learn that fun doesn't have to be based on the weather (or lack of Covid ;) )
Abi has a Soaked activity packet available for download on her website here:
And make sure to follow Abi online, because I know we'll be seeing even more amazing books from her soon
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AbiCushman
Instagram: https://instagram.com/Abi.Cushman
Facebook: https://facebook.com/AbiCushmanArt
How are you coping with the changes in plans due to Covid? How are your kids coping? I hope you're all finding ways to dance (or hula hoop!) in the rain like our friend Bear.