Wonder Why
by Lisa Varchol Perron; illus. by Nik Henderson
Primary    Harper/HarperCollins    32 pp.
4/25    9780063310421    $19.99

Perron’s accessible STEM-friendly text about meteorological phenomena grounds itself in that quintessential question of childhood: “Why?” On alternating spreads, rhymed verses in a singsong cadence pose questions to the sky, wind, clouds, thunder, rain, and a rainbow. These queries all appear on pages that depict children, and each question includes the line, “How I wonder, wonder why,” implying a child’s voice. In response to the questions, each weather phenomenon replies with a scientific explanation (the wind: “Pressure! That’s what makes me blow. / Cool air moves from high to low”). These answers are reinforced with succinct statements in the back matter about each meteorological event. Henderson’s illustrations recall Jon Klassen’s style and make good use of perspective and scale to evoke the smallness of the child speakers in relation to the vast sky and the world we inhabit. Effective, too, are his use of color and shadow and his energetic line work to depict the dynamism and power of weather events. A great choice for readers wondering about weather. Appended with a selected bibliography.

From the July/August 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.