For months the sun has burned down on Lila's Kenyan village. It is too hot to gather firewood, too hot to weed the garden, even too hot to milk the cow. Without rain the well will run dry and the crops will fail. Lila is so worried that when her grandfather whispers to her the secret of rain, she decides to go and talk to the sky herself. How Lila saves the village by telling the sky the saddest thing she knows is told in David Conway's elegant and spare prose style, which is complemented perfectly by Jude Daly's beautiful and poignant illustrations.

One night Lila over heard her mama talking about the well that had dried up and the crops that were failing.

"Without water there can be no life," Lila heard her mama say.



Lila wanted so much for the sun to stop shining and for the rain to come.

But the sun did not stop shining and the rain did not come.



One evening Lila' grandfather told her a story about a man that he'd met once when he was a boy - a man who had told him the secret of rain.

"You must climb the highest mountain," said the man to Lila's grandfather, " and tell the sky the saddest thing you know.