The banner shows a child reading a book while sitting under a tree

Sing Down the Rain
written by Judi Moreillon and illustrated by Michael Chiago


  • Sing Down the Rain is about a cultural and spiritual tradition of the Tohono O'odham American Indians who live in southeast Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Their name means "Desert People."
  • The book is dedicated to Tohono O'odham children and was written with the Tohono O'odham students who attended Elvira Elementary School in mind. In 1991-92, I worked as their school librarian. On the shelves in our library, there were very few books that reflected the unique and beautiful cultural heritage of these students.
  • The book was first published by Kiva Publishing in September, 1997.
  • The poem was written to be performed as a choral reading by a classroom of students. Click on the link or look in the book for information about creating the choral reading.
  • Michael Chiago, the illustrator, is Tohono O'odham. This is the first children's picture book illustrated by a member of the Nation.
  • Michael and I sat down together to decide what images should be on each page of the book. His original original are the exact size of the book's two-page spread illustrations. This is a slide show of the illustrations.
  • Danny Lopez, Tohono O'odham storyteller and teacher, wrote the introduction to the book. He also served as the cultural advisor for the text. Danny helped me choose authentic words and taught me more than books could about his traditions so that my writing would be more accurate.
  • The poem tells about the Sonoran Desert environment: "A dusty land bakes; its washes run dry. / The blazing hot sun hovers high in the sky. / Cicadas make music a sharp scraping sound. / The spreading mesquite trees hang close to the ground."
  • It also tells about how the Tohono O'odham harvest the fruit of the saguaro cactus, cook it to make a syrup, ferment some of the syrup into wine, and drink the saguaro fruit wine as part of their annual rain-making ceremony. Visit these pages for more information on the Ha:san Bak, saguaro fruit harvest. To learn more about the saguaro cactus in general, visit Sabino Canyon: The Web of Life: Saguaro Cactus.
  • The book is written in rhyme with a strong meter or beat to help students read the "voices" together.
  • The eight voices used to create the choral reading are: narrator, clouds, saguaros, flowers, women, grandparents, medicine man, and headman.
  • Judi has recorded information about the book and provided an introductory reading on TeachingBooks.net.
  • This sound file will let you hear the beginning of the poem being read by the author. 

Sing Down the Rain Teachers' Menu

Revised 22 November 2008