Rain Makes Applesauce by Julian Scheer.

“The stars are made of lemon juice . . . and rain makes applesauce.

Salmon slide down a hippo’s hide . . . and rain makes applesauce.”

I used to read this book to my kindergarten and first grade classes many moons ago when I was a school librarian. The children would soon join in on the chorus: “Rain makes applesauce!” It only takes a few pages for kids and grown-ups to get the idea of this ridiculously nonsensical picture book poem. Take a modicum of rhythm, maybe a rhyme or some alliteration, and add the refrain “rain makes applesauce,” and you can play this word game all day long. After you finish reading all the silly sentences in the book, you and the kids can make up your own.

(Z-baby saw me looking at this book, and she had to have me read it to her. She says, “Rain doesn’t really make applesauce; rain makes WATER!”)

The illustrations in this picture book by Marvin Bileck are delightfully busy, harlequin-like pictures of children and giants and clowns and fairies and gnomes doing all sorts of silly things. Some of the pictures look as if they’ve been washed over by the rain that makes applesauce.

And at the end we visit The Sea of Applesauce and realize that rain does make applesauce.

(Oh, you’re just talking silly talk. I know I’m talking silly talk, but RAIN MAKES APPLESAUCE!)

Picture Book Preschool is a preschool/kindergarten curriculum which consists of a list of picture books to read aloud for each week of the year and a character trait, a memory verse, and activities, all tied to the theme for the week. Click on the link in the sidebar if you are interested in purchasing a copy of the preschool curriculum, Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early.