Elsina's Clouds

It was a dry season for the people of Bosotho. They painted their houses in vibrant colors and beautiful patterns as their cry for help to the ancestors, hoping they could bring some rain to their crops. A little Bosotho girl wanted to help her family, so she asked for permission to paint the house instead. I love how Jeanette Winter incorporated art and culture together in this book. Her amazing illustrations bring the story even more to life.

The borders of the pictures are designed in vibrant African colors. The pictures, clothes, borders, and houses are all made out of the same shapes, textiles, and colors. The girl cannot remember rain or clouds because it is always hot and sunny in Africa. It is a part of their heritage to paint the houses and walls to ask the ancestors for rain. Winter's square and rectangle pictures help illustrate the actions of each animal, person, and sun/cloud. The only thing that is a dark black color are the rain clouds.Overall, I feel that the colors clash and it is hard to pinpoint where your attention should go. The story wants it to rain, but the dark clouds and rain do not look like a joyful event.

This book is about how a family is struggling because no rain has fallen and the have fields that need watering for them to survive. But Elsina is the little girl who dreams of those big dark clouds filled with rain inside. Her family is adding a new room so she begins to paint it so mane the ancestors will hear her and bring rain. She waited and waited and finally the rain came. So she began to always paint the house because the ancestors listened to her and brought them rain. This is a interesting story on how one family can struggle because of a drought but there traditions help them over come that drought.

Elsina is a girl who wants to take some responsibility. So while her mother is pregnant, her father extends the house by building a room for him. Elsina is excited like everybody else, and asks permission to paint this part of the house. Elsina always dreams of the rain coming by her home so that she will be able to paint the whole house too. It takes weeks to rain and when it does, Elsina becomes excited and she starts to paint the whole house again. She then starts to dream of the black clouds and it rains then she paints the whole family house.

In South Africa, a Basotho girl paints designs on her house as a prayer to the ancestors for rain.