Playing with Sound in A Place for Rain

​ Plink. Plip. Plop.
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Thus begins my newest lyrical picture book, A Place for Rain, illustrated by Blanca Gómez. It’s the story of a classroom that plans and builds a rain garden to “lessen all the rainstorm mess” and create a habitat for wildlife.  

Those first three words came to me as I listened to the dribble of raindrops filling a rain barrel on the side of my house. I knew I wanted the sounds of moving water to guide the story’s flow. To accomplish this, I leaned into one of my favorite poetic devices: ONOMATOPOEIA!

Onomatopoeia is the use of a word that sounds like what it means. For example, the word “buzz” sounds like the noise an insect makes, and it means “to make a low, vibrating humming sound.” Because picture books are meant to be read aloud, onomatopoetic words act like sound effects, enhancing the sensory experience. (For more information and examples, check out this Rhyme Doctors Poetry Prescriptions on onomatopoeia Post by Eileen Meyer.)

To gather onomatopoetic words for A Place for Rain, I sat for hours, ears tuned, near a water-play fountain in my town’s center. Pitter-patter. Splutter-splatter.  I left my office window open on rainy days and listened carefully to the sounds made by different types of rain. Drizzle. Pour. Roar. I played various recordings of water and danced around my house, pretending I was I drop of water, a stream, a flood. Drop. Flow. Rush.

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Along with onomatopoeia, I had fun with two other “sound effect” poetic devices: alliteration, the repetition of beginning sounds, and assonance, the repetition of vowel sounds. (For more information and examples, see this Poetry Prescription post on alliteration and this one on assonance.)  
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Here’s a spread where I play with alliteration. I repeat the “r” sound in rooftop-rushing and raindrop and the “g” sound in gutter-gushing to mimic the noise of rain hitting a building.

Here’s a spread where I play with assonance. I repeat the “uh” sound in mud, puddle-muddle, flood, mucky, and runoff.  The repetition of “uh” reinforces the “yucky” feel of water pollution.

Recently, I read A Place for Rain to an audience of kids for the first time. I was thrilled when they started repeating the onomatopoetic words: Plink! Plip! Plop! It felt as if the words were jumping off the page and echoing around us, like a rainstorm.
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Have some fun weaving onomatopoeia into your own writing. Then read it out loud and listen to your words fill the room with sound!

-Rhyme Doctor Michelle Schaub