The King Who Rained

THE KING WHO RAINED is a humorous collection of a young girl's mental illustrations when she hears various homonyms. The book, written by the late Fred Gwynne, introduces children to the exciting, fun, and sometimes confusing world of the English language. This book is one of three books Gwynne wrote about homonyms and when you put all three together you have a nice trilogy. Children love reading these books and they work well as a springboard into other fun and witty word games. A delight.

I have been searching for the book for a long time and finally realized that the internet was just a click away from finding my favorite book that I read as a child. I used to visit my local library and sit on the floor in front of the shelf where the book was located and read it over and over and over and over again. I could never get enough. Now I am even happier to find that it is still in print and I can have one for my 5 year old. I can't wait until he gets to hear it. I hope he likes it just as much as I did and still do.

Ages ago, a friend of my mother's bought this book for me. It was a beautiful hardcover, and I have cherished it. Now I am going to use it to introduce "idioms" to fifth-graders. This book is a definite must have for any mother, teacher, or child at heart!

I came across this book about 25 years ago quite by accident and have treasured it (and all the Fred Gwynne books) since. Remember Fred? He played Herman Munster on TV... and was in the old "Car 54, where are you?" show. Little did I know he was a talented children's author/illustrator. The drawings are as precious as the text... some of them resemble Fred (and I assume his children as well). His perception of how children think of routine phrases like "pigeon-toed" or "a king who reigned [rained]" are delightful. My children are grown now, and I will share these with my grandchildren. They are wonderful.