Rain Reign

Title: Rain Reign

Author: Ann M. Martin

Narrator: Laura Hamilton

Publisher: Brilliance Audio, 2014

Format: 4 compact discs, 4 hours and 9 minutes

Genre: middle grade realistic fiction

Obtained: library




Synopsis: Rose Howard's dog Rain Reign gets lost when Rose's father lets the dog out during a hurricane.  Can Rose find her dog?

Thoughts: This was a wonderful book. There is MUCH more to this story than my basic synopsis. It is about a girl and her love for her dog, but it is also about persistence, courage, stepping out of your comfort zone, acceptance, love, and friendship. The story involves Asperger's syndrome, an absent mother, and an alcoholic father. It is told by Rose who loves homonyms, prime numbers and rules- which are all very interesting.  Rose is a lovable character who is different in many ways, but very easy to relate to. The author does a fantastic job showing how people do things for a reason and how sometimes we just have to take the time to get to know someone to understand.

This was a book that played with my emotions. I listened to this story with my eleven year old son.  He was not upset by any of the book even though some of the scenes were disturbing and emotional.  He understood what was happening in the story but didn't get all of the underlying themes and connections that were going on.  This book would probably be better for 13 year olds and above due to some of the content.

The narrator was terrific.  She told the story at a great pace, spoke very clearly, and was extremely easy to follow.

If you like emotional stories with excellent characters try this one- unless homonyms annoy you.


                                                                 

Company: Davids Tea

Tea: Rhubarb Cream Soda

Obtained: purchased

This was a caffeine free herbal tea which was in an ice tea sampler that I purchased.  The ingredients were apple, rose hip shells, mango (mango, sugar), pineapple (pineapple, sugar), hibiscus, red currants, rhubarb, and natural flavouring.  The "leaves" were chunks of fruit and pieces of rose hips.  The scent of the leaves was of fruit. I put my packet of tea into my tea maker and poured 10 ounces of water that had been boiled over the leaves.  I let this steep for 5 minutes.  I poured this over ice.  The liquid was a lovely dark pink.  The scent was of fruit, but also there was a background scent that reminded me of play dough.  The taste was a nice sweet and sour combination, but the taste again reminded me of play dough.  I didn't care for this one at all...