Folklore, #2: Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain

Following Sebgugugu the Glutton (1993), I chose Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain, by the same author (Verna Aardema), and illustrated both by Aardema and Beatriz Vidal.

Though not technically a poem, this retelling of another African folktale is poetic. For this story, Aardema took the original tale and poetic influence from This is the House that Jack Built, creating a cumulative rhyming story. The basic plot is that Ki-Pat sees how the animals and his family suffer during a drought, so he works to bring back the rain. He succeeds and the animals and his family are the happier for it.

-Nick