tap tap boom boom

Well, this must be what they call serendipity. I start a new blog called Rainy Day Riot, and the next day is a rainy day. And not only that, but we found an awesome book about New York City in a thunderstorm yesterday at the library! What better to do on a rainy morning than cuddle up with a little girl and a cup of tea and read a rainstorm book.

Tap Tap Boom Boom is a new book by Elizabeth Bluemle with awesome gouache and pencil illustrations collaged with photos by G. Brian Karas. I picked it up because the title reminded me of our favorite winter book, Snow Music by Lynne Rae Perkins, which uses words to evoke the sounds and silences of a snowstorm. It’s so great. I’m gonna do a whole post on it one day, but it seems odd to talk about snow books in June. So Tap Tap Boom Boom.

It has a wonderful rhyming sort of free-form poetry that describes the anticipation and mad dashing of the beginning of a thunderstorm, and then the warm, wet camaraderie of strangers congregating to wait out the rain. I entertained myself chanting Boom! BOOM!! in my most thunderous voice, and imitating the sounds of raindrops and lightning, but if you’re the type of person who likes to read books in a dignified manner and not sound like a lunatic to the other folks at the library or bookstore, then maybe wait until you get home to read it aloud. Thankfully, everyone who goes to library story hour probably already knows that I’m a lunatic, so no harm done.

I love this guy who ran into the subway with his pizza and then decides to share it with a bunch of other folks seeking shelter down in there.

The illustrations are so detailed, and it’s fun to follow the characters through their pages. On the back cover, these two little guys march happily out of the subway to see that the sun has come out and presumably go back to the playground where they were when the book begins.

And the kiddos adore it – I’ve read this one three times already this morning and counting. I have a feeling this book will be joining our permanent collection!