Book Review: Rain Reign (girl, autism, dog, rain)

Rain Reign, by Ann Martin (Feiwel and Friends, 2014, 226 pp, $16.99, grades 4-6).

The Characters

Here at DogEvals we love dog books - even, or especially, dog books ‘written’ by dogs. So, after loving A Dog’s Life: The Autobiography of a Stray by Ann Martin, we thought we would love Rain Reign. We almost did and you may, too.

Rain does have a (minor) dog character, Rain, but our protagonist is a motherless girl named Rose who lives with a father who tries, off and on, to understand his daughter’s high functioning autism. He has difficulty accepting her outbursts and obsession with rules and routines and the way things should be* – and prime numbers and homonyms (hence the title, Rain Reign). He tries, though, and brings home a stray dog that he found who becomes Rain.

Uncle Weldon pinch-hits for Rose’s dad by driving her to and from school and by listening to her serious homonym games - with Rose’s rules, of course.

Rain Reign – What Kind of a Title is That?

We chose to read and review Rain Reign for two reasons:

first, the incredibly eye-catching and -holding cover illustration of a girl running behind a dog against a backdrop of  a blue cloudy sky in the rain, and

second, the fact that it was authored by our favorite and wonderful author Ann Martin who also wrote the memorable A Dog’s Life: The Autobiography of a Stray (2005) and its sort-of-sequel, Everything For a Dog (next on our list, 2009) about little stray puppies Squirrel and Bone (respectively).

Homonyms 

Homonyms are words that sound alike but have different meanings and different spellings, like rain and reign and also like rose and rows. Martin too often seems to interrupt the flow of her writing by pointing out all the homonyms. On the other hand, the prose is simple, easy and quick to read with short sentences.

The Story Goes On After the Book is Finished!

When Hurricane Susan arrives unexpectedly and Rose’s dad lets Rain out early one morning, Rain does not come back. Rose, of course, is devastated and devises a plan to look for and find Rose with the help of Uncle Weldon.

What becomes of Rose’s relationship with her dad (and Uncle Weldon and her classmates) and what becomes of Rain? The book answers these questions but also leaves the reader knowing that things will get better – and just how.

The story continues as all stories do and the reader can imagine what happens next: Rose continues to be accepted gradually by her classmates as she remembers to ask them questions and as they try to add to Rose’s list of homonyms. Rose continues to love dogs and . . . .

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*p. 118 “Then I go to my room and spread a map out on my bed. . . . I feel happy because it was folded properly and all the creases were going in the right directions.”