Rain Makes Applesauce

May I Bring a Friend? by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers beat this for the Caldecott in 1965. I bet it was a tough decision. (Though I don't personally like the former nearly as much as this, I can imagine the appeal.)

This is just gorgeous - nonsense verse illustrated by intricate fantasy scenes that could give a reader cumulative hours and hours of joy. I hope you all can get a copy, and be sure to read the information on the flaps, including especially Scheer's biography & photo.

This is a book that, had I read it as a child, would probably have changed my life. I would have been inspired to more freely appreciate 'silly talk' and to attempt to create my own detailed imaginary scenes like the ones drawn here by Bilick. I definitely would show more have given it five stars then. show less

The pictures are cluttered, however, I find that that helps in the little games of identifying where the tree is (every page shows the tree growing in the rain, demonstrating that rain really does make applesauce, as the refrain goes) and who's saying "You're just talking silly talk" and noticing this detail and that one.

And this book is just a list of various nonsensical statements, but I don't see that as a problem. Not everything in life has to make sense, after all :) My nieces love this book, and I'm willing to read it to them, and that's good enough for me.

Beautiful pictures with lots of detail and color on every page match the joyful, silly story. The book pretty much lists many silly phrases and adds in the idea that rain makes applesauce.

Delightful and transcendent. A book to cherish.
"You're just talking silly talk."

47 months - O thinks this book is silly but doesn't really like the illustrations... go figure as a Caldecott honor book. We just don't get it... at least it's a quick easy read.

1965 Caldecott Honor Book
Beautiful and lovely; intricate illustrations

I really don't know what to say about this book, except for sillyness abounds.