Mushroom Rain

by Laura K. Zimmermann, Jamie Green (Illustrator)

Overview

What can smell like bubble gum, glow neon green at night, be poisonous and yet still eaten by humans, and even help create rain? The answer is mushrooms! From their hidden networks underground to the fruiting body above, mushrooms can do incredible things. But don't call them plants—mushrooms are fungi. They're more closely related to animals like you! Through lyrical text and colorful, detailed artwork, the wonderful, mysterious, and sometimes bizarre world of mushrooms is explored. Back matter includes a glossary, additional mushroom facts, and a science activity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781534111509
Publisher:	Sleeping Bear Press
Publication date:	03/15/2022
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD900L (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 7 Years

About the Author

Laura K. Zimmermann is a college professor by day and children’s writer by night. When not writing or teaching, she’s outdoors enjoying nature. Laura lives in Winchester, Virginia.

Jamie Green is a mushroom lover, maker, and freelance book illustrator living in Greenville, South Carolina, and their clients include Disney Hyperion, HarperCollins, and Charlesbridge.

Editorial Reviews

Readers peer at ground level in this gorgeously rendered nonfiction picture book. As spare, lyrical text describes mushroom characteristics, how they are enjoyed and harvested by animals and humans...Hands-on activities conclude this delightful selection.

Booklist - Angela Leeper

2022-03-02
Explore the fascinating world of a fairy-tale–esque fungus.

In her debut picture book, Zimmermann, author of numerous short nonfiction articles for children’s magazines, invites her audience to look closely at mushrooms. In lyrical, attention-grabbing language, she describes mushrooms’ bizarre shapes and colors and remarkable smells—there are even mushrooms that smell like bubble gum! She goes on to mention foragers, both animal and human, and then turns to mushroom reproduction and the secret underground lives of these fungal blooms. Star-dusted double-page illustrations convey Green’s enthusiasm for the subject. Backgrounds of black night skies and deep-brown ground layers on several spreads underscore the mystery of mushroom existence. Green portrays other plant life as well, along with fauna, from a forest-floor perspective, and then follows mushroom spores into the clouds, where they help create rain. In the backmatter we learn that in Russia, a gentle rain that falls while the sun is shining is called a “mushroom rain,” hence the title of the book, and that the “largest known living organism on Earth” is a mushroom-producing fungus growing in a forest in eastern Oregon. With spare text and engaging pictures, this relatively simple nonfiction book would make an effective storytime presentation. The backmatter, printed in a scriptlike text, is clearly geared toward adults. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An intriguing look at an unusual subject. (Nonfiction picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews