It's raining in the woods, and grumpy Bear is miserable. Rain ruins everything, he gripes, "Ice cream cones. Sandcastles. Cashmere sweaters." Adding insult to injury, the bear has lost his beloved bumblebee umbrella vermind that Badger mysteriously has an identical one. Bear decides to hide in his cave along with his animal pals, but when Moose breaks out the hula hoops Hula-Hoop, the cave feels too crowded. Blah, the bedraggled bear heads back out into the rain for a bit more soggy moping. Not to worry: when the other, less-grumpy animals convince Bear to try a hula hoop, it seems that the rainy day may be salvageable, after all. Cushman's darling story is wonderfully silly, and, while touches of sarcasm may go over younger readers' heads, they will delight their adults. The expressive pencil illustrations are a hoot, from Bear's world-weary expressions to the exuberant gyrations of the hoop-obsessed Moose. It's a joy to follow the woodland critters on their rainy-day escapades d a gentle reminder that happiness can be found in even the gloomiest situations.

With the help of his woodland friends, a bemoaning bear narrator gains a sunny outlook in Cushman's spirited picture-book debut. A steady rain is making Bear unhappy. Why? Because the rain ruins everything (ice-cream cones, sand castles, and cashmere sweaters) that Bear loves. The animals take cover in Bear's cave but head back out into the rain after Moose takes up all the space -- with his hula hooping. Bear continues to wallow in his misery until his friends persuade him to try the hoops. His initial despondency is quickly splashed away as he discovers the joy of playing in the rain. Full-bleed double-page spreads (rendered in pencil and digitally colored) and with bouncing onomatopoeic sound effects (SPLISH! SPLOSH! SPLOOSH!) magnify the animals' abundant splashing delight. Animated facial expressions and dynamic body language add an extra layer of humor to this entertaining and buoyant read-aloud. Emmie Stuart

Three woodland creatures persuade a fourth to have some fun in the rain.The first drop of rain hits the bear on the title page. "Look at all this rain," says the bear in the opening pages. "Everything is dreary. / Everything is drenched." A wet badger, bunny, and moose with a hula hoop are seen standing in the rain. "[N]o one is happy / And especially // not me." The moose, badger, bunny, and bear retreat from the rain to the bear's cave, where things are too crowded for hula-hooping. But back outside, where it seems that the badger has a blue umbrella just like the bear's missing one, things are very splashy. The other animals persuade the grumpy bear to try the hula hoop, and the bear's reluctant delight at the watery fun is a joy to see. Cushman's animals are endearingly expressive and her rainy woodland settings, nicely realistic. The ungainly moose looks amusingly graceful with hula hoops, the bunny is dashing in a knit turtleneck, and the badger appears smugly happy with the blue umbrella. Umbrellas with bear-shaped handles and bees on blue canopies decorate the front endpapers, and bright hula hoops adorn the back ones.A charming and good-humored reminder that a little rain can't truly spoil the merriment.

-Look at all this rain- reads the first page of Cushman-s impressive debut. Digitally finished pencil drawings show the gloomiest of days: stubborn-looking gray clouds hang in the sky, which is streaked with rain. A saturated badger, bunny, and hula-hooping moose-each one eccentrically imagined and rendered with lovely texturing-look appropriately dour, but none of them can match their comrade, a bear, who narrates, for Eeyore-ness. (And who can blame the bear, given that the rain has ruined its ice cream cone?) The path to happiness is circuitous and includes mordantly funny scenes involving the bear-s tight, stuffy cave (where the moose-s hula-hooping takes up way too much space) and a mysteriously missing umbrella (though readers will know instantly who swiped it). But eventually this misbegotten quartet-the bear most of all-discovers the joys of rainy day puddle splashing while hula-hooping. -Look at all this rain,- Cushman reprises, this time adding an exuberant -Everyone is SOAKED!- Visually elegant and character-driven to the hilt, this book makes the familiar make-lemonade story feel as fresh as the outdoors after a summer shower. Ages 3-7. Agent: Kendra Marcus, BookStop Literary. (July)

PreS-Gr 2 It's starting to rain and no one is happy; not Badger, not Rabbit, not Moose, and especially not Bear. Rain ruins everything, from ice cream cones to sandcastles to cashmere sweaters. But Bear's cave is too crowded for everyone, especially with Moose, who is using a Hula-Hoop. After the group works together to try to rescue one of Moose's hoops from a tree, Bear falls into a giant puddle with the Hula-Hoop around him. Following some encouragement, Bear tries it out, and soon everyone is Hula-Hooping in the puddle and splashing around, soaked. Told from the perspective of Bear, this is perfectly paced with lots of visual foreshadowing to make for great dialogic reading, and children will enjoy following items from scene to scene. This humorous debut, full of expressive and winsome characters that are reminiscent of those found in Emily Gravett's work, is a great story about finding joy in the moment, whatever it might be, and learning to let go of your expectations. VERDICT A sure hit for any kind of weather, and every kind of story hour.Danielle Jones, Multnomah County Lib., OR