Rain School

Thomas and the other children head eagerly to school in this picture-book from author/illustrator James Rumford. When they arrive they find a teacher, but no building, as the annual rainy season in their part of Chad washes away the mud schoolhouse each year. First they must help their teacher to build a new school, and then the learning can begin. Although the building will disappear with the next rainy season, the knowledge the children gain will stay with them...

Based upon Rumford's time teaching in Chad, when he was in the Peace Corps, Rain School offers an inspiring glimpse of how deeply committed some children are to getting an education in one of the poorest countries in the world. He also captures some of the difficulties they show more face in doing so, helping perhaps to partially explain why Chad has one of the lowest literacy rates in Africa. The artwork here is colorful and expressive, capturing the deep russet and golden hues of the area. As always, books like this help to remind us here in more affluent parts of the world how very fortunate we are, in terms of the educational resources available to us. Recommended to picture-book readers seeking stories that emphasize the importance of education, or stories set in Chad. show less

In my opinion, “Rain School” is a fantastic book. The book gives the reader a glimpse into education in another country. The story takes place in the country of Chad. I enjoyed the plot of the story. A young boy named Thomas is excited about the first day of school. When he arrives, he sees that there isn’t a building or desks. There may not have been a school building, but there was a smiling teacher standing there. “‘We will build our school,’ she says. ‘This is the first lesson.’” The children all worked together to build a school. Once inside the school, all the children are excited and eager to learn. “This is the moment they have been waiting for.” After nine months of learning, the school year is over. The show more rainy season comes and washes the school away. The children don’t seem to mind. “It doesn’t matter. The letters have been learned and the knowledge taken away by the children.” This book pushes the reader to think about just how much we take for granted. I cannot imagine having to build my school, I just expect the school to be there. I expect there to be desks, chairs and pencils waiting for me. I also like the illustrations in the book. They are bright and vibrant. It almost looks like they were done in crayon. The children in the story are beautiful, with big smiling faces. The big idea of this book is that material things aren’t important, but the things you learn are. It didn’t matter that the school was washed away, the children learned and grew there while it lasted. They were ready and exciting about building a new school in September. show less

The book follows a young boy named Thomas as he starts his first day of school in a small village in Chad, Africa. Each year when the rainy season begin, the village school is washed away, and the children must work together to rebuild it. Thomas and his classmate gather material to build their school and learn how to read and write. This book can be used to introduce children to the experience of student in other parts of the world and to encourage their appreciation for the value of education.

Age: 3-5 years
Source: Pierce College Library

This was one of the first books on our Engage New York ELA curriculum list. This book is wonderful! The text is rather short, but the illustrations are beautiful, and they add so much to the story. We see how Kenyan children build their school each year before the rainy season begins. They build their school step by step, and they are so excited to attend and learn. The children in the story work hard to build their desks and the description of their books at the end of the school period is priceless. This is another text that shows the hunger for knowledge and the obstacles children in other countries must overcome just to do what many American children take for granted every day.

At the beginning of the school year, children in Africa must build their school before they can begin learning. Emphasizes the gift and privilege of education, as well as the cooperative and co-creative aspects of learning. At the end of the school year, the rains will destroy the school and they still start again next year.

It’s the first day of school. A group of children are walking to school, excited about the start of classes. They walk and walk and finally they arrive. There are no books. There are no desks. There is no school building. The teacher is there. ‘’We will build our school,” she says. “This is the first lesson.”’

What a moment. ‘”We will build our school,” she says. “This is the first lesson.”

The children live in the African county of Chad. The children have an excitement about learning that I don’t see every day in my work in the schools in America. I feel the power of that excitement in these pages. It enables a group of children, led by a teacher, to build a place each year, from scratch, in which children can show more learn, knowing that, at the end of the school year, rains will come and the whole building and everything in it will be washed away by the heavy rain.

A moving story. Very powerful. show less

I really enjoyed this book for many reasons. I liked how it showed a different perspective that some kids go through in order to get an education. One of my favorite aspects of the book was the characters, the teacher in particular. She was portrayed as such a genuinely caring teacher that cared about her students and wanted them to succeed. I liked how she went about different ways in order to teach her students. For example, in the beginning of the book when she tells her students their first lesson is to build their school. I also liked how the students say that everyday the teacher cheers them on when they do their schoolwork. In addition, I really enjoyed the plot and how in the beginning of the book the boy was one of the younger show more kids going to school and was nervous, but then by the next year he gained so much confidence and learned so much that he was now the older kid leading the others to school. I think the overall message of this book was that you don’t need a big fancy school or expensive resources to be educated. Sometimes people have little to no resources, and they make the best of what they have. show less