For hundreds of years, the Basotho women of South Africa have painted the walls of their houses in bright colors and intricate patterns. The designs are prayers to their ancestors for rain. In the middle of a long drought, Elsina paints her first house and watches the blue sky for the big, black clouds that bring rain. Winter frames each of her wonderful folk art-style paintings with colorful, patterned borders reminiscent of the paintings on the Basotho houses.

"The story is elegant in its simplicity, evoking the cycle of life in a rural African setting."
 ~The Horn Book