Maylight lives in a village where the sun always shines and it only rains at night. And that is the problem: Maylight has heard about a very beautiful natural phenomena called a “rainbow”, but as it never rains when the sun is shining in her village, she cannot see it. The little girl gets sadder and sadder. The doctors tell Maylight’s parents that if they cannot find a way for her to see a real rainbow, they should at least try to get her to see it in her mind. And old Mr. Veillivell, who saw a rainbow when he was young, manages to do this by describing each of the colours of the rainbow to a delighted Maylight. In the end, what Mr. Veillivell says ends up being something more than just a simple description.
This is a book about the power of words, about imagination and about the magic of colour, filled with poetry and extraordinarily musical language. It is a book that will open up the children’s eyes to the beauty of the world that surrounds us.
