Today I'm excited and grateful because I got to collaborate on this
I'm joining Jada and doing a rain dance about today's PPBF,
a self-awareness and self-regulation title for your SEL shelves.
Title: Tabitha and the Raincloud
Author: Devon Sillett
Illustrator: Melissa Johns
Publisher: EK Books
Birth date: March 10, 2020
Suitable for: PreK-3rd grade
Topics: emotions, mindset, grit
Brief synopsis: When Tabitha wakes up in a mood, she notices a raincloud hovering nearby. It seems to follow her and ruin everything while causing some errant thoughts and behaviors until she realizes that she has a choice about whether to despise the rain or dance in it.
Opening page: One day Tabitha woke up on the wrong side of the bed. She soon discovered why.
Resources:
Write on: Ask the students to write about a time that they've
found themselves waking up on the wrong side of the bed.
What happened? What was that experience like? How did they feel as a result? What did they want or need? What did they do about it? Who helped them? How long did it take to turn that day around?
Compare and contrast with The Cloud by Hannah Cumming.
Create a bulletin board about helping someone through their storm; click the image below for a whole gallery of Kindness Displays newly-curated at the
Why I like this book: It does a really good job of painting a poignant picture of how it feels to have a stormy day and how a soggy, gloomy day affects not only you, but others. Your stakeholders. Everyone in your path really. I can see using it to help kids connect a time they felt this way with how Tabitha must be feeling to elevate empathy, mobilize compassion, and talk through what they might do to be the rainbow in her cloudy day.
But I also think that the story is too short, only twenty four pages when it really calls for the standard thirty two. So I'd totally use it as a writing exercise by asking students to extend the story by eight pages. Where would they put another page or two? What's happening on those pages? What other feelings might Tabitha be having that they'd like to see the reader explore? What might she have to do to restore relationships hurt the behaviors that resulted from her icky feelings?
We know that gratitude can help us through storms; what or whom might she find gratitude for (like her Dad, who made breakfast for her)?
The book touches on Tabitha's fixed-mindset thoughts about the Raincloud, so use it as an opportunity to teach Byron Katie's The Work.
Click the image for more information on The Work.
Now, who's ready to join me in that rain dance?
Looking for more book recs? Check out Lost Cat and
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I really enjoy hearing from my readers; thanks for sharing your reflections with us!