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Thunderstorm



Thunderstorm
by Arthur Geisert
Enchanted Lion Books, 2013.  Unpaged.  Picture Book

     This story begins on the back of the book, wraps around the front, and then enters the covers. In real life, the pictures in this book are one continuous, 415 inch illustration, telling the story of an afternoon of Midwestern thunderstorms and tornadoes on July 15. With the leading edge of the pictures in cutaway, the reader can see the holes in the ground and the hollows in the trees where raccoons, squirrels, and gophers shelter from the wind and rain.  The concept of "shelter," in fact, is a major theme in this book as the family who are bringing a trailer-load of straw along the road shelter in a garage when their truck breaks down, under an overpass when the rain gets too heavy, and in the leaky-roofed kitchen of their home. Wordless, except for notations of the time, Thunderstorm is detailed and atmospheric, the kind of book one would want to look at with someone else during stormy weather, in a warm, snug place.

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