The Yellow Umbrella - Hardcover

Caitlin Dundon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671777432 ISBN 13: 9780671777432

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 1994

Synopsis

A little boy converts his mother to the idea of having a bright yellow umbrella to enjoy in the rain

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

A gust of didacticism dampens this picture book, the author's first, about a mother and son hurrying to school on a rainy morning. A bright yellow umbrella discarded on the street catches the boy's eye, but his frazzled mother, almost late for work, has little patience for his curiosity about the "yellow umbrellow," much less for his desire to splash through every puddle he passes. In a moment of revelation, however, the waterlogged woman contrasts the smiling children and their multi-hued umbrellas outside the school doors with "all the unsmiling parents / and all the black umbrellas . . . / and all of them hurrying / and hurrying off to work." She concludes that the childlike attitude is best after all; a happy ending shows her, armed with a new yellow umbrella, and her eager child taking a wet but leisurely stroll home. Awash in the diffuse light of a rainy day, the misty, atmospheric pastels are the strong suit here, but even Speidel's art is not up to her usual standard (see Sing to the Stars and My Mama Sings , both reviewed below). The mother's coloring, for example, changes so radically that it can be difficult to recognize her from one spread to the next. Ages 3-6.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Ages 3-5. On a rainy, blustery day, everyone is hurrying to school and to work, including one small boy and his mother. He wants to take his time, splash through puddles, pick up a yellow umbrella that someone has abandoned in the gutter; but she's "almost late," part of the rushing adult crowd in dark raincoats under black umbrellas. The double-page-spread pastel illustrations express the excitement of the city in the stormy rain, and kids will recognize the boy's desire to stop and play while his parent lectures him and pulls him along to school. Unfortunately, the story then shifts in point of view to the mother: she suddenly realizes that the child is right, that all the smiling children have colorful umbrellas, and when she fetches him from school at the end of the day, she brings a yellow umbrella, and they dawdle and enjoy the rain together. What starts off as a child's story ends up as an admonition to parents. It's the pictures that show the fun of walking through the rain. Hazel Rochman

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0671777432
• ISBN 13: 9780671777432
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 1
• Illustrator: Sandra Speidel