Harper and the Scarlet Umbrella by Carrie Burrell ill by Laura Ellen Anderson
Check out the cover: a girl with a cat perched atop her head and holding aloft a red umbrella as she sails through the skies. It is evident that readers are about to experience a delightful adventure. Carrie Burnell's Harper and the Scarlet Umbrella certainly lives up to that expectation. Meet Harper a girl with a rare musical gift who lives with her Great Aunt Sassy, chief dressmaker for the Dutch Opera House. When work takes Aunt Sassy away for a few days she wishes Harper "a weekend as wonderful as you" and advises her to take the Scarlet Umbrella as protection against the rainshower. Harper locates the umbrella, but to her dismay the cat Midnight is nowhere to be found. Where can her pet be? Tiny paw prints tracking across the book's pages provide a clue. She learns that along with Midnight, cats throughout the city are missing. With assistance from the magical umbrella, she sets out to find these felines who have mysteriously disappeared. |
Rainy Day Lexicon
This is so clever! What a marvelous way to expand rainy day vocabulary beyond "cats and dogs". The next time that the promise showers grab your umbrella, perhaps a scarlet hue, and try one of these intriguing precipitation descriptions. Summer Dew: a light rain that barely touches you. Sea Mist: a soft rain that emerges from the air like a fog. Heartbeat: an even rain, steady as your heart. Cloudburst: a downpour that soaked you to the skin. Icefall: a hard rain that struck like hail. Thunder Break: when the sky was alive with storms. |
Companion videos
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