When the Dark Clouds Come
by Danielle Ridolfi; illus. by the author
Preschool, Primary    Quill Tree/HarperCollins    32 pp.
10/25    9780063413344    $19.99

This picture book begins as a simple story of a child watching a storm roll in but evolves into a quiet, resonant meditation on resilience. The child notices the light shift (“the sun goes dim”) and hurries inside as the winds rise and rain lashes the rooftop. Ridolfi’s prose is straightforward yet musical, with lines that read like free verse, punctuated by evocative moments of metaphor (“thunder rolls down the stairs like a tumbling snore”) and personification (“shadows whisper good night”). On its surface, the storm is literal, but the book also works as a gentle metaphor for weathering emotional or personal turbulence: “when the dark clouds come, the sun is never far behind.” Ridolfi’s digitally composed collage illustrations heighten the drama. The textured layers and expressive lines make each spread feel almost tangible; viewers may find themselves wanting to run their fingers across the page. Particularly striking is a spread showing the child’s home seen from afar, rain driving down in straight, slightly slanted streaks, the text anchored beneath in a calm horizontal strip. Throughout, Ridolfi uses movement and contrast—dark against light, rough against smooth—to evoke both the ferocity of the storm and the comfort of its passing. A visually rich and emotionally grounded picture book that finds beauty and solace in life’s inevitable tempests.

From the January/February 2026 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.