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After the Rain
Gorgeously illustrated and brimming with accessible science, this joyful picture book explores the wonders of the natural world after it rains. Puddle-hopping optional!
What happens once the rain stops? To a young child out exploring with her grandmother and dog, the world smells of summer green and turtles and warm bricks. That after-rain smell, known as petrichor, signals to seeds, You can come up now! Bees buzz out of their hives and sip from puddles. Butterflies desert their leafy umbrellas. The rain itself becomes water vapor, which forms clouds. And not everyone ventures up and out. With the sun’s return, worms wriggle deep down in search of shelter while fungi converse with the tangled roots of trees. Illustrated with the sparkling glow of a busy landscape after rain, spreads include relevant “words to say after the rain,” such as evaporation and humidity, in a form that provides context for the meaning. This deceptively simple and imminently shareable picture book by a leading scientist introduces key concepts with energy, gentle humor, and age-appropriate language, inspiring curious readers of all ages to pull on rain boots and beeline for the door.
What happens once the rain stops? To a young child out exploring with her grandmother and dog, the world smells of summer green and turtles and warm bricks. That after-rain smell, known as petrichor, signals to seeds, You can come up now! Bees buzz out of their hives and sip from puddles. Butterflies desert their leafy umbrellas. The rain itself becomes water vapor, which forms clouds. And not everyone ventures up and out. With the sun’s return, worms wriggle deep down in search of shelter while fungi converse with the tangled roots of trees. Illustrated with the sparkling glow of a busy landscape after rain, spreads include relevant “words to say after the rain,” such as evaporation and humidity, in a form that provides context for the meaning. This deceptively simple and imminently shareable picture book by a leading scientist introduces key concepts with energy, gentle humor, and age-appropriate language, inspiring curious readers of all ages to pull on rain boots and beeline for the door.
- GenresPicture BooksNonfiction
40 pages, Hardcover
Published March 3, 2026
About the author
Eleanor Spicer Rice
17 books14 followersEleanor Spicer Rice is an award-winning author with a Ph.D. in entomology. She studied ants and how they shape the natural world. After publishing six books on ants, she now writes books for children about the amazing life with which we spend our days.
Eleanor is also the senior science editor at Verdant Word, a science communication company she co-founded with Robin Sutton Anders.
Eleanor is also the senior science editor at Verdant Word, a science communication company she co-founded with Robin Sutton Anders.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 3, 2026
This book will instantly bring to mind the sights and smells of a summer rain. New vocabulary words are creatively introduced, and an appreciation for nature is modeled as a girl and her grandma observe their backyard coming to life after a heavy rain. A nice book to share!
May 7, 2026
The story itself is cute, and the illustrations are wonderful, but I don't understand why they chose to randomly place vocab words on the page with no explanation, and that don't always clearly relate to what's happening on the page.
On a spread with a turtle walking through leaves while the main character looks on, the text says "Now the turtle zooms! For a turtle anyway" and then the word Forage just appears, with no explanation. The turtle is not eating, or interacting with food.
There is a glossary in the back, but it would have been so much more effective to have the definitions embedded in the story.
On a spread with a turtle walking through leaves while the main character looks on, the text says "Now the turtle zooms! For a turtle anyway" and then the word Forage just appears, with no explanation. The turtle is not eating, or interacting with food.
There is a glossary in the back, but it would have been so much more effective to have the definitions embedded in the story.
April 13, 2026
Lovely story of a girl and her elderly grandmother or nannie who investigate the world after the rain, one by sprinting down the stairs and the other with her cane. The book also teaches great nature vocabulary on each page with a glossary at the back -- petrichor, migrate, humidity, fungi.
May 5, 2026
A science-focused book exploring nature after rainfall. It helps readers understand ecosystems.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews