Review of "Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain," by Verna Aardema

Review of

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain, by Verna Aardema ISBN 9780142410790

Five out of five stars

 The Nandi are an ethnic group in East Africa, living in the highlands of Kenya. This book is about a particular area called the Kapiti Plain and is a Nandi folktale about a drought and how one man was able to bring rain to the plain.

 This area of the Nandi homeland is normally lush and green due to plentiful rain, but this year there is none. The pastureland is brown, and the cattle are hungry. Ki-pat is a herder and he watches the desiccation of the land and the suffering of his cattle and the wild animals. Clouds come over and appear to be dark with embedded rain, but none falls. Eventually Ki-pat fashions a stout bow and shoots an arrow into the sky. Like a pierced balloon, the cloud sheds its’ water and the land is quickly green once again.

 Adapted to the rhythm of the fairy tale, “The House That Jack Built,” this story is an expression of a folk tale that was discovered by an anthropologist in the early years of the twentieth century. It is a short and illustrative example of what is most important to herders, rain so that there is natural feed for their cattle. This book is a good addition to libraries where knowledge of other cultures is considered important.