"Dear me!" cried plump hen when she saw her reflection in the rain puddle, "A poor little hen has fallen into the water. Come and help!" And one by one the other animals came. Gazing at their own images, each one points out plump hen's mistake in thinking that the poor creature in the puddle is another hen.

Here is a picture book that can be enjoyed on several levels: from second graders who will like the story's classic pattern and subtle appeal to a child's need to feel superior, down to the preschoolers who like to play with mirrors and who are just beginning to develop a concept of themselves.

Roger Duvoisin said of The Rain Puddle: "What attracts me to this story is that it has the charming ingenuousness of a little folk tale, and I have tried to keep my illustrations just as simple."

And surely no rain puddle ever reflected more brilliant images, and no barnyard was ever inhabited by a colony of familiar characters of such dazzling colors, yet so reassuringly real as these. The hen is scarlet, the cow yellow and the horse and sheep are blue. But their essential natures are completely true to their kind—even a little truer because of the artist's exaggeration and fantasy that focus attention more closely on form and detail.

From the dust jacket