Review #97: Rain Brings Frogs

Lily (age 8):  "Rain Brings Frogs"!
Isaac (age 12):  By Maryann Cocca-Leffler.
Lily:  Cocca-Cola...  Hot Cocca!
Gracie (age 10):  Lily!
Isaac:  The book is about this kid named Nate.
Lily:  He's a "happy side" person.
Gracie:  He's always looking at the bright side.
Isaac:  For example, his sister got a present -- this purple and neon green scarf and hat.  And she thought it was the ugliest ever.  Then Nate saw it and said it was warm.  He found something good to say about it.
Gracie:  He's showing her the bright side.
Lily:  And there is a boy named Ben who has more ice cream than a banana split, and he says to everyone, "Nooo!! I'm not going to share with you!"  But Nate is sharing his.
Gracie:  Even though Nate's ice cream is a billion times smaller than the other guy's.
Lily:  Nate only has one scoop of ice cream, but he's sharing.
Dad:  Does this book help you learn anything?
Isaac:  Be content with what you have.
Lily:  Don't complain.  Be thankful for what you've got.
Dad:  Does our attitude depend on the things around us?
Lily:  Our attitude comes from what's inside.  It's pretty much love and self-control.
Dad:  Would you like to have Nate for a friend?
Gracie:  He would give me ice cream!
Lily:  Nate would be my BFF.
Gracie:  I already have a friend who is happy all the time.  I have Julia.
Dad:  How about you guys?  Could we say that you are like Nate?
Gracie:  No-ho-ho.  No one is THAT perfect.
Isaac:  Nobody could be like Nate.  Not ALL the time.
Gracie:  Except Julia.
Dad:  Could we work to be more like Nate?
Isaac:  Well, we do try to be like Jesus... which is an impossible goal.
Lily:  But we try our best.
Dad:  Are there legitimate things to be sad about?
Gracie:  Like if a person fell down and skinned their knee.
Lily:  But Gracie, there's a bright side -- at least the person didn't break their leg!
Dad:  Has that happened to you before in real life?  Did something disappointing happen, but you looked on the bright side?
Lily:  At Christmas.  Mom was in the hospital having a baby.  So I only got to open one present.  I was kind of sad about that.  We had to wait for three days to open the rest.
Dad:  Ha ha...  But what was the good thing in that situation?
Lily:  At least I got to open one present.
Dad:  What else?
Isaac:  And we got a BABY SISTER!
Lily:  Oh yeah.
Gracie:  Would you rather have gotten a few more Polly Pockets, or had a BABY come into the world?!
Lily:  Ba-by!
Gracie:  Hey... Mom wanted to review this book with us!
Dad:  That's right... what did you want to say about this book, Hon?
Mom:  Just that I loved it.  It gets your kids thinking about thankfulness.  It gets them looking on the bright side.  We all know people out there who are positive...
Gracie & Lily:  Julia!!!
Mom:  And Julia's mom is like that too.  They are a bright-side-of-things family.
Dad:  Is there specific "complaining" that we deal with in our family?  Maybe we can think through a good response instead?
Mom:  All the time when we are homeschooling they say, "I have to do Math again?  Every day?  I'm sick of Math..."
Dad:  So what would be a better response?
Gracie:  "We...  have the ability...  to learn."
Mom:  "I can do Math on my couch."
Gracie:  Yeah, you don't send us away to learn Math!
Dad:  "I can do Math in my jammies."
Gracie:  Yeah!!!
Dad:  How about positive examples.  Can you think of a time when one of our kids looked on the bright side in a hard situation?
Mom:  It seems like something just happened the other day...  What was it?  It seems like...  it might have been Isaac....
Gracie:  That figures.  He's the perfect kid.
Mom:  It's hard having one perfect sibling.  But on the bright side: at least you have four other imperfect siblings -- Ha ha ha ha!

Lee says, "It's so green"
Nate says, "It's so yummy"
- by Lily

When Mom says, "What a mess"
Nate says, "Yuuummm!"
- by Gracie

Jake says, "It's too long!"
Nate says, "But it's worth it!"
- by Isaac

Author/Illustrator: Maryann Cocca-Leffler
Published, 2011: Harper
Like it?  Here it is