The story is of a little girl, Ava, who loves the rainbow after the rain so much she wishes it would stay forever. In fact, this is such a lovely thought she dreams the rainbow did stay. And when she wakes up, she thinks she is still dreaming as the rainbow is still there! Shining bright and colorful and beautiful as ever. Ava and the town have fun enjoying the rainbow. And soon realize day or night, the rainbow is staying. People come from far and wide to see the rainbow that never leaves. Until one day, people forget that the rainbow is even there! They just ignore it or use it for not so nice purposes. Then one day, the rainbow learns that to be extra special, sometimes you must be rare.
There is nothing wrong with this story. The story is sweet. The illustrations are fun. They are bright and just the right amount of detail. Both kids and adults can enjoy this story. The moral is not overly preachy, the adults can find humor in the text and illustrations and anyone reading will enjoy the story. Except, the story has been told before. When I finished my two thoughts were “Disney and Elmo did it better with their Christmas story.” (If you are not familiar with them in the Disney version Huey, Duey and Louie wish every day was Christmas, as did Elmo. And they learn that Christmas every day is not as fun as it seems at first.)
This little detail does take away from the story a bit for me. However, since this is about a rainbow and not a holiday, it does lend itself to becoming and anytime story about being special and what that can mean.