After the Story: The Yellow Umbrella’s Secret Adventure

Since the paperback edition of The Rain Came Back was released, I’ve received several messages from readers who have already read it with their children, or who are waiting for their copies to arrive.

I feel a little shy, very grateful, and also newly motivated to keep building something meaningful around this small story.

I’ve been thinking about when a story truly begins to shine. Perhaps it is when it reaches a reader and stirs something inside them, a memory, an imagined possibility, a small realization, or even just a quiet ripple of thought.

With that in mind, I created a new discussion activity inspired by the questions I often ask when I read this book with children, as well as by the thoughts and responses they have shared with me.

Through The Rain Came Back, children can naturally begin to explore the water cycle. But the story can also open conversations about waiting: how to wait without rushing, how to hold disappointment when things do not return in quite the way we expected, and how to imagine that something may still be unfolding even when we cannot see it.

And then there is the yellow umbrella.

Where might it have gone while it was missing? Who did it meet? What did it see? What little story might it have carried back with it when it returned to Nuri?

I hope you’ll try imagining that unseen part of the story together.

Perhaps imagination can soften impatience and disappointment, and help us remember that while we are waiting, there may still be a story unfolding somewhere beyond our view.

The Yellow Umbrella’s Secret Adventure is now available in the Free Downloads section.