Island Storm
Hardcover – Picture Book, July 22, 2025
Candlewick Press · Hardcover · July 22, 2025
In Caldecott Medalist Brian Floca and acclaimed illustrator Sydney Smith’s thrilling picture book, young readers will experience the sheer power of a violent thunderstorm and the calm of its aftermath.
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- Who it’s for
- Feel a storm gather, break, and settle through rhythmic words and richly textured illustrations.
- Themes
- Thunderstorm and its calm aftermath, Siblings experiencing a storm
- Pacing
- Mixed
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Start with this bookAbout this book
In Caldecott Medalist Brian Floca and acclaimed illustrator Sydney Smith’s thrilling picture book, young readers will experience the sheer power of a violent thunderstorm and the calm of its aftermath. A Kirkus Prize Finalist A New York Times Best Children’s Book of the Year Can you tell when a storm is coming? Can you feel the wind coming and growing? Do you hear the branches bouncing together, hear the whispers of the wind through the leaves?
Continue reading
Join in the journey as two siblings bear witness to the steady start, thrilling apex, and gentle end of this island storm. They’ll shelter soon, but first they want to feel it all. Sydney Smith is the winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international distinction given to authors and illustrators of children's books, and his illustrations are fantastically textured and visually spectacular. Paired with Brian Floca’s eloquent, rhythmic text, Island Storm is a multi-sensory experience that will amaze and delight readers. Children who fear thunder can take comfort in seeing it captured in the pages, while those who relish watching the sky crack open can enjoy battling this storm from the comfort of their homes. A Charlotte Zolotow Award Highly Commended Title An NPR "Books We Love" Selection A Horn Book Fanfare Title Named a Best Book of the Year by Shelf Awareness, Publishers Weekly, the Boston Globe, Quill & Quire, and more! A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection One of Evanston Public Library’s 101 Great Books for Kids
Weather Up Close
Feel a storm gather, break, and settle through rhythmic words and richly textured illustrations.
Come here for
- Wind, thunder, and rain rendered as a vivid sensory experience
- A storm’s thrilling peak, followed by the calm of its aftermath
Expect
- An accessible picture-book encounter with changing weather
- A little shelter from the storm, without losing its force
Where it sits
| Weather Stories | 69% |
|---|---|
| Sibling Stories | 55% |
| Art & Architecture | 29% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Sibling Stories
- Weather Stories
- Camping & Outdoor Adventures
- Authors
- Brian Floca
- Publisher
- Candlewick Press
- Published
- July 22, 2025
- Format
- Hardcover
- Theme
- Thunderstorm and its calm aftermath · Siblings experiencing a storm
- Reading lane
- Sibling Stories