A scientific look at how rainbows are formed, why we can only see part of them, and how your location determines if you see one or not.

For anyone going through a difficult passage, this uplifting, beautifully illustrated picture book is about finding optimism in the darkest of places. Rain before rainbows, clouds before sun, night before daybreak—a new day’s begun. In this heartfelt story about courage, change, and moving on, a girl and her companion fox travel together away from a sorrowful past, through challenging and stormy times, toward color and light and life. Along the way they find friends to guide and support them, and when the new day dawns, it is full of promise. With gorgeous, richly realized illustrations and immense hope at its heart, Rain Before Rainbows holds out a ray of sunshine for anyone looking for light.

"In Rainbows, early fluent readers will explore the science behind rainbows. Vibrant, full-color photos and carefully leveled text will engage young readers as they explore these amazing sights in the sky"--

Discusses the science behind rainbows.

Young children are naturally curious about the world around them. Tell Me Why I See Rainbows offers answers to their most compelling questions about rainbows. Age-appropriate explanations and appealing photos encourage readers to continue their quest for knowledge. Additional text features and search tools, including a glossary and an index, help students locate information and learn new words.

How hot is a bolt of lightning as it flashes across the sky? Are the deep booms and rumbles of thunder really made by air? Are there different kinds of lightning? And how can there be electricity inside a cloud? Young readers will find out as they learn all about lightning and the heavy, dark thunderclouds it comes from. Filled with information perfectly suited to the abilities and interests of an early elementary audience, this colorful, fact-filled title gives readers a chance not only to learn, but also to develop their powers of observation and critical thinking. With its stunning photographs and surprising, high-interest facts, the book makes learning about this dramatic weather phenomenon a lively and engaging experience.

Answers, in simple text and illustrations, some basic questions about the weather including why lightning strikes and why rainbows appear.

‘Goethe called colour the deeds and sufferings of the light – victorious deeds when it pierces matter, and suffering when it endures the darkness in matter. Indeed, there is no greater contrast in the whole cosmos than that between matter and light.’ Having spent time in the Arctic Circle in Lapland – where, with the sky filled in a flood of colour, the midnight sun shines for weeks, and the long polar night is brightened by the shining northern lights – the author was left with unforgettable memories. Thinking through these experiences led to this short but penetrating work, a study of the pathways and metamorphoses of light from a global perspective. The essence of light is to shine – it rays out dynamically in all directions at an unimaginable speed, never resting. The nature of matter, in contrast, is heavy, static and condensed. But matter can also let light through, as with crystal, or in the transparent and flowing element of water, evaporation and even air. Water and air thus act as ‘mercurial’ factors, allowing the creative potential of light to appear in a diversity of colours. The ‘deeds and sufferings of light’ are further to be found in many phenomena of the inorganic world such as the northern lights. By seeing the laws within phenomena, Goethe approached an understanding of the etheric formative forces. The object of this book is the observation of nature’s natural wonders using Goethe’s methodical process. Apart from the rainbows, lightning and northern lights in the title, the author discusses the blue of the sky, the colours of twilight and the dewdrop, and halos and other light phenomena. The power of imagination produced by the observer creates depth and inwardness, says the author. In such a state of consciousness, one’s inner eye can picture ‘a threefold global union of light, which speaks to a threefold organization of the Earth’. Bühler’s concentrated work will inspire readers to make their own observations of the optical phenomena in our atmosphere, learning anew to treasure our planet for what it is – a human-scale home for which we are all responsible.

A gentle rhyming picture book that shows how color can be found all around us, whether there are raindrops falling or a bright rainbow high above. Raindrops are falling outside, but there's still a world of color to experience! Delightful rhymes and brilliant illustrations detail how a gloomy, rainy day might not actually be so gloomy after all when you get to spend time with Mom, Brown Bear, and the colors around you. And when a "beaming rainbow, bold and bright" cuts through the sky, everyone gets to experience the joy of all the colors that can only come after the rain.

Note: This eBook file contains many richly detailed full-color images and makes use of unconventional page layouts. Because of this, readers will be required to zoom in on each page to read the text and see the finer detail of the artwork. [It has not been optimized for devices that display only in black and white.] From the National Book Award finalist Lauren Redniss, author of Radioactive, comes a dazzling fusion of storytelling, visual art, and reportage that grapples with weather in all its dimensions: its danger and its beauty, why it happens and what it means. WINNER OF THE PEN/E. O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, KIRKUS REVIEWS, AND SHELF AWARENESS Weather is the very air we breathe—it shapes our daily lives and alters the course of history. In Thunder & Lightning, Lauren Redniss tells the story of weather and humankind through the ages. This wide-ranging work roams from the driest desert on earth to a frigid island in the Arctic, from the Biblical flood to the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Redniss visits the headquarters of the National Weather Service, recounts top-secret rainmaking operations during the Vietnam War, and examines the economic impact of disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Drawing on extensive research and countless interviews, she examines our own day and age, from our most personal decisions—Do I need an umbrella today?—to the awesome challenges we face with global climate change. Redniss produced each element of Thunder & Lightning: the text, the artwork, the covers, and every page in between. She created many of the images using the antiquated printmaking technique copper plate photogravure etching. She even designed the book’s typeface. The result is a book unlike any other: a spellbinding combination of storytelling, art, and science. Praise for Thunder & Lightning “[An] aesthetically charged and deeply researched account . . . a wild rainstorm of a book, pelting the reader with ideas and inspiration.”—Nature “A gorgeous and illuminating illustrated study of weather in all its tempestuous variety . . . Redniss’s combo of fact, folklore, and vibrant etched copperplate prints enthralls.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “Eerily beautiful . . . Contains plenty of scientific explanation (including more than a few nods toward global warming), but also far-flung personal stories that illuminate the beauty, wonder and chaos inherent in the elements.”—The New York Times “Magical . . . Redniss has . . . shown us how human beings live with nature—fighting, coexisting, taming, predicting via leech barometer and radar and intuition.”—The New York Times Book Review “[A] twenty-first-century genius . . . The reader willing to put herself fully in Redniss’s hands will be rewarded with a delicious feeling of being enveloped by a phenomenon that eclipses the chiming trivialities of daily life.”—Elle “Redniss is one of the most creative science writers of our time—her combination of beautiful artwork, reporting, and poetic prose brings science to life in ways that words alone simply cannot.”—Rebecca Skloot “Redniss combines her own dual punch of expressive art and impressive erudition to give an entirely new take on all that happens above our heads.”—Adam Gopnik “A strange and wonderful thing, the work of a first-class mind that refuses to submit to any categories or precedent.”—Dave Eggers