The year Momo had her third birthday the sunny Indian summer weather stayed for too long. Mom wanted the rain to come so she could user her new birthday umbrella and her beautiful red rubber boots.

Then at last there was a morning when Momo's mother said, "Get up! Get up! What a surprise for you!" Momo did not even stop to wash her face and she pulled the boots onto her bare feet, she was so excited. The rain did not stop all day long, and it was a wonderful day for Momo because she found that she was grown-up enough to do something she had never done before.

Taro Yashima has captured in a gentle, poetic story and inimitably beautiful pictures the wonder of a little child's discovery of herself. Other little children, and their fathers and mothers who read to them, will share delight in a small adventure that has meaning for everybody.

From the dust jacket