The Rain Door

An imaginative tour de force in this compelling story of a little boy's discovery of the rag and bone man who has the power to turn on the rain. The tale, and Blake's generous, intriguing pictures, has all the ingredients of a quest, an Alice-like journey into the surreal, compressed into a very short space. The young enjoy encountering the playfully-made junk dinosaur, and wonder at the rag and bone man's word play. The parts combine into a magical whole which appeals to five-year-olds at the level of 'what happens next'; to eleven-year-olds (honestly, I've read it to them) who talk about the ways in which the story's made.