the wizard of the umbrella people
by louise kent
illustrated by sandra smith
published by ure smith, sydney
1971

this is the third book i’ve featured illustrated by sandra smith, and unfortunately i’m still not any more enlightened as to what her story is. what i’m very certain of is i love her style. its so bright and cute and i love the art nouveau style curlicues that make her illustrations even more dynamic.

unlike wings on wednesday and please sit still (both written by natalie scott) this book was written by  louise kent who is also a mystery. i promise, i have actually done some research into this but information on either author or illustrator is no where to be found online! if any of you know anything about either please leave a comment, because i love to have some background to the books i cherish.

the story tells of the people in the land of umbrella. unsurprisingly, they love rain and spend their days playing in puddles and splashing about.

the land of umbrella had its own wizard, willy,  who had invented the umbrella. he lived in the highest tower of royal umbrella palace but as the years went on he got more and more forgetful. one day there was no rain, so the king sent his footmen to fetch the wizard.

the king demanded the wizard bring back the rain, and with help from his cat lightening, the forgetful wizard tries a couple of spells, but the sun carries on shining.

the king grew angrier so the wizard tried more spells but with no luck. at last he remembered a very special spell, and the footmen were dispatched to collect the ingredients:

first, the tick of a clock

and a sweet smelling fish

a two week old spider

(now what else do i wish?)

a bag of small peanuts,

a holly branch too

and a large ostrich egg-

any color will do.

there’s  just one more favor,

the very last one:

my large mixing bowl

helps banish the sun.

outside the palace the citizens in their rapidly sweaty rain gear gathered in the sunshine.

as the wizard worked on the spell, and the umbrella people waited patiently, the streams and rivers of  the kingdom were drying up.

the powerful spell cast the wizard up to the sky on the back of a winged white horse, into the sun.

ringle, tingle, tangle – DONE

go away, you naughty sun

the wind from the horse’s wing’s swept up the citizens of  the land of umbrella and when their umbrella’s pierced the clouds it began to rain again.

(pictured above is the wizard’s cat, lightening)

so now you know what to do if it stops raining

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