Marriage of the rain goddess

Mbaba Mwana Waresa, the rain goddess who lives in a round hut of rainbow arches in the clouds, embarks on a quest for companionship among the mortals and puts the young cattleherder who has captured her heart to the test to determine whether he can see beyond her appearance and into her deepest soul.

I enjoyed reading this myth because of the beautiful illustrations. The illustrations are perfect for the text in the story. The text is written well but the illustrations make the story. An example of how the illustrations engage the reader into the text can be found on multiple pages. One page in particular, where Thandiwe had a dream, shares a magical woman from the dream. This woman is beautiful and colorful. Her beads shine and her eyes sparkle. The text says "The magical woman then said,..." The text does not go into detail how the woman looks. The illustrations do. The overall message of the story is there is more than what meets the eye. The rain goddess fell in love with a mortal and realized that she had to test his love for her.

I would recommend reading the book because there is an interesting interpretation of the South African Myth. The story of Rain Goddess and her quest to find love was interesting however, I didn't like the text heavy page. I felt that there was an overabundance and use of words that didn't need to be there. I did appreciate the plot of the story, it was nice to see the perspective of the rain goddess in the South African context. It overall was a nice story.

The Rain Goddess searches for an honorable, mortal man to marry. A South African myth told well, with lovely illustrations.