Rain and the Reading Horse -Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF + Giveaway

Maria Marshall
Oct 9
4 min read

I've heard of programs where kids and shelter cats and dogs help each other as the kids work on their reading skills. Or reading dogs who come into libraries and schools, I had never heard of horse reading programs. Turns out there are reading/riding therapy or support programs around the country and even miniature ponies who come to libraries and schools to encourage reading. I adore horses and find there is nothing quite like a friendship with a horse. I love this stunning and powerful book, and I hope you do too.

Book cover - white horse head on the left listening as a girl reads.

Rain and the Reading Horse

Author: Maria Gianferrari

Illustrator: Hannah Salyer

Publisher: Clarion Books (October 7, 2025)

Ages: 4-8

Themes:

Struggle reading, horse, confidence, fears, and friendship.

Synopsis:

Attention, all horse lovers! Here's a gentle, gorgeously illustrated meditation on the healing power of our relationship with animals and overcoming our fears, for readers of I Talk Like a River and Rescue & Jessica.

When a shy young girl attends a school program to read to a horse called Snow, she doesn’t know what to expect—other than to be nervous about reading aloud. Her words often get stuck, but Snow's calm and reassuring company slowly builds her confidence. Rain and the Reading Horse is a beautiful celebration of a girl's relationship with a horse and the slow but persistent ways we can confront our fears.

Open Lines:

Rain had never read

to a horse before -

But this was a new school program,

Giddy-Up and Read.

What I LOVED about this book:

The end papers, with their aerial views of a tree-lined lane between pastures, do a magnificent job of setting up the initial alienness of the farm and wrapping up with the happiness, contentment, and calmness found on the farm.

I adore this opening spread and the gorgeous and inventive interpretation of it by Hannah Salyer. Showing the same scene of Rain arriving at the farm using a fun shift of perspective, beautifully captures her angst and the setting in a really personal way. First, the reader looks into a yellow car's window at Rain, who sits worried, nervous, and clutching a book, through the reflection of a person, horse, and barn on the window. And then the reader is looking out the car's dark interior, through the window with her, seeing the barn, person, and big horse from Rain's perspective. It's a wonderful melding of the emotions within the text and the illustration.

Internal spread - on the left a girl sits in a car clutching a book and staring out the window. A reflection of the barn, person, and horse on the right side of the window. On the right, shifted perspective

Text © Maria Gianferrari, 2025. Image © Hannah Salyer, 2025.

This impressive duo creates a poignantly emotional and heart-breaking moment in the next spread. Walking into the barn, Rain gets flustered and can't read, she is grateful that "at least her classmates weren't there to stare and make her feel small inside," In stark contrast to the last spread, Hannah Salyer depicts Rain as a white outline surrounded by shades of red, with red and yellow squiggles. And then places a very small red Rain in an irregular white space, surrounded by the laughing, grimacing, eye-rolling, and sneering oversized-heads of classmates. Really highlighting Rain's shyness and her performance anxiety.

It's such a powerful spread showing Rain's internal turmoil. However, the page turn shows the juxtaposition of what was actually happening. And introduces Maria Gianferrari's gentle and calming refrain - "Snow just listened. Ears twitching, tail swishing." Hannah Salyer also offers the observant reader a subtle "cookie," a hint to the book Rain is reading. This secondary visual story pops up and expands throughout the book.

Internal spread - on the left, in a barn, a cat peers over a hay bale stack as a girl sits holding a book. On the right, a white horse looks over its stall door, peacefully focused on the girl.

Text © Maria Gianferrari, 2025. Image © Hannah Salyer, 2025.

When the words still refuse to come, Rain employs the age-old tactic of a diversion - she mucks out Snow's stall. Surrendering to her senses and the routine helps relax her. Each time she visits, slowly, the words "stumbled out of her mouth" and Snow's calm, attentive presence and the routine of caring for Snow sooth and steady Rain and she keeps trying. There are so many gorgeous spreads of Rain and Snow, but perhaps one of my favorites is this intimate image of their friendship and trust of each other. Accompanied by soft, lyrical, tender text.

Internal spread of a white horse's mane and head, with its eyes closed, and multiple pairing placements of a girl's hands working out tangles in the mane and petting the horse.

As her confidence grows, and she has the space to go at her own pace, incredible illustrations show Rain and Snow sharing more than just the story, they become true friends - connecting and moving to a similar rhythm. I found myself lingering over the soft, colored pencil, and chalk pastel spreads, finding my breath slowing to match the rhythm of the text and delighting in delicious nuances in the illustrations. The penultimate spread is breathtaking, and the ending is joyous, encouraging, and well earned. Sure to appeal to horse and art lovers, this is a great book highlighting the benefits of reading to a horse, pet, or even a stuffed animal and encouraging readers to persistently and patiently face their fears. In addition to an author's note and illustrator's note sharing their own connections with horses, who helped them with shyness and loss, the back matter offers links to "horse powered reading" and national therapy horse programs. It's a wonderful, tender book for struggling readers, their teachers, and parents.

Resources:

make an origami, cool paper roll, recycled marionette, or sock hobby (stick) horse.

read your favorite book to your new horse friend, a stuffed animal buddy, or your own animal friend (horse, cat, dog, rat, hamster, snake, fish, turtle, etc.).

check out horse powered reading programs by state and other specific programs mentioned at the end of the book. If you don't have a horse reading program near you, look for a Reading with Rover, Reading to Rover, or Paws for People, or a Book Buddies (reading with cats) Program. Or see if your local shelter has reading programs.

🎈🎉 Rain and the Reading Horse Giveaway 🎉🎈

Maria Gianferrarri is offering one lucky reader a book!

- Simply comment below or on Maria and Hannah's interview of Monday (here) to be entered in the random drawing on October 17th.

- Be sure to say where (if) you shared the post (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Bluesky), and I'll add additional entries for you.

- Sorry US residents only.

If you missed my interview with Maria Gianferrari and Hannah Salyer on Monday, find it (here).

This post is part of a series of blog posts by authors and KidLit bloggers called Perfect Picture Book Fridays. For more picture book suggestions and resources see Susanna Leonard Hill's Perfect Picture Books.