(“Thank you, clouds,” he writes in the media statement.) Sweet and sunny. The author even uses rainwater for the watercolor pictures. The whimsy would nicely complement a preschool or primary weather unit. She spies a frog in a former pond, now just a puddle of cracked mud, and has a helpful “brainstorm.” Lichtenheld’s depictions of Cloudette puffing herself up for a fulsome downpour will delight children, and funny turns of phrase (“Even the higher-ups were impressed”) will engage adults, too. No one seems to need a little cloud, but when she’s blown clear out of her neighborhood, she’s welcomed by new friends-an eagle, a bear and fluffy cumuli. “he thought nothing would be more fun than giving some kids a day off from school,” accompanies a snowscape with banks billowing up to the windows of the school and buses clearly going nowhere. Her imagination yields lots of wishes, depicted in ink-and-watercolor spot illustrations. But she’s wistful when other clouds do big things, like create cold fronts and water crops.
Cloudette usually enjoys being small-she can cavort with birds and kites, and hide between skyscrapers. I appreciated many of the humorous little details here, both visual and textual - Cloudette's attempts to say hello to smoke puffs, in one scene, mistaking them for fellow clouds the cleverly worded praise heaped on Cloudette, after her big deed - and think young readers will find her story quite engaging as well.Lichtenheld takes a charming turn with the "tiny but mighty" theme. But when the big clouds head out to do big, important things, from watering the crops to make the rivers flow, she found that she too wanted to do something that would make a difference.A sweet story, one which taps into that common childhood desire to do what the "big people" are doing, and to make a mark on the world, Cloudette is the first picture-book I have read that is both written and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld, although I did enjoy Chris Barton's Shark vs. With plenty of pet names, lots of friends her own size, and the ability to fit into spaces where the larger clouds couldn't follow, there were distinct advantages to being small. Cloudette was a cumulus cloud who usually enjoyed being just as she was: diminutive and cute.
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