Reader Score
82%
82% of readers
recommend this book
A Blueberry Honor Book
A Bank Street College School of Education Best Book of the Year 2024
A North Carolina Children's Book Award Nominee 2026
"The fluid, rhyming text offers some basic facts about thunderstorms; the well-researched back matter presents a more detailed account . . . McKay's illustrations beautifully capture both the changing weather phenomena and the children's reactions. An informative read-aloud choice for home or classroom." --Booklist, starred review
"Science collides with poetry in Zap! Clap! Boom!: The Story of a Thunderstorm, in which Laura Purdie Salas's pit-a-pat rhymes match the tempo of a rain shower, and Elly MacKay's art rivals the drama of a real atmospheric disturbance." - Shelf Awareness "With eye-catching art and lines that roll off the tongue, this book would be well-suited to raucous but stealthily informative science-based story hour." --BCCB "MacKay's intricate layered-paper illustrations capture the way the storm touches every part of the island . . . Salas's onomatopoeic verse conveys both the ferocity of a thunderstorm and the wonder it can inspire; it begs to be read aloud." --The Horn Book "The book is a perfect read-aloud . . . A lovely, vocabulary-stretching, story-hour gift for a cozy day." --School Library Journal "The buildup and arrival of a wild thunderstorm offers both eye-widening drama and lessons in atmospheric phenomena . . . A crashing success." --Kirkus Reviews "A handsome, original book for reading aloud each spring." --Booklist on SNOWMAN - COLD = PUDDLE "[A] contemplative and thought-provoking ode to the forms water takes and the functions it serves, both practical and whimsical." --Publishers Weekly, starred review, on WATER CAN BE . . . "Richly rewarding and clever: a visually arresting, inventive treatment of a popular subject." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review, on LION OF THE SKY