Rain Holiday
Shreya Ramachandran
Reviewed by Sonali Shirodkar & Sujata Noronha
Rain Holiday offers a peek into the mind of an eleven year old who is struggling with big feelings. A poignant and insightful read for anyone who is trying to understand the mental health landscape especially among children.
| Publication date: 2025 ISBN: 978-93-6336-897-2 Page count: 216 pages Publisher: Talking Cub (Speaking Tiger) Review posted online: January 2026 QBR Reviews Issue: Q1 2026 Categories: Friendship, Mental health |
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The story is a warm and touching story about Rekha, an eleven-year-old girl living in rainy Mumbai who likes spending time with her best friend Latisha. But Latisha suddenly stays inside her room and doesn’t want to talk or play, which makes Rekha worried. To understand what is wrong, Rekha starts asking questions, talks to other friends, neighbours, and tries to help her best friend feel better.
The story starts with “I don’t even like the rain. It’s pouring right now, and the skies are grey, and my school is definitely going to say it’s a Rain holiday” (page 5, P.1). It starts with Rekha describing rain in her city, how the rain is pouring badly and it’s dark grey everywhere. As a result, they have a “Rain holiday.” As the title suggests, let us imagine the monsoon in the city. The title of the book is nicely brought into the story. The narrative is a literal 13-day countdown that starts when the monsoon shuts down the world and ends only when the “holiday” is over, making the title the frame for everything that happens. By choosing this title, the book shows that the story isn’t about normal life, but about a special, isolated time where the rain traps the characters with their “Big Feelings”.
The story takes us into Rekha’s home of divorced parents, a psychiatrist mother, and the many emotions that Rekha goes through as a young person growing up in the city. The story beautifully captures the awkwardness of Rekha’s father returning home after being away for his own health struggles. Instead of an immediate “happy ending,” their relationship is a slow process of getting to know each other again. It teaches readers that parents are human and sometimes need time to heal, just like children do. Meanwhile, Mala Akka acts as a pillar of strength and wisdom. She provides a safe, grounded adult perspective for Rekha, helping her understand that caring for someone doesn’t mean you have to have all the answers..
Faiz plays a crucial role in Rekha’s life as a different kind of friend. While Rekha’s bond with Latisha is deep and sometimes heavy with worry, Faiz brings a sense of normalcy and companionship. Through him, the story shows that a support system is made of many different people; he provides the balance Rekha needs to stay afloat while she tries to navigate the emotional storm surrounding her best friend.
Latisha is creative and sensitive. She loves to imagine stories about Mighty, but with time her character changes in the story when she starts staying in the room. She, in her text, shows different worlds: a world where there are tall buildings, huge windows of Latisha, and a world of muddy streets.
“Mighty” is shown as a giant monster holding our protagonists.
Mighty the Monster enters the text, Mighty the Monster is introduced to the readers through illustrations that have small details of interest.
Mighty just don’t come for fun, He is a window into a special language Rekha and Latisha share. They both love Mighty, as we see the illustrations they remind us how close both friends were and what Rekha is fighting for.
It’s also a clever way to show Rekha’s growth. At first, she thinks being “mighty” means solving the mystery and “fixing” her friend like a superhero. But as the story moves along, the comics help the reader see that real strength isn’t about having powers,it’s about the courage to stay by someone’s side when things are messy and sad.
This is like how Mighty changes with the change in the colours and emotions. First, he is gentle. The initial version of Mighty is a gentle giant with boots on his feet.
Mighty is comforting and kind for both friends.They treat them as the third member in their friendship who helps them to be brave. The girls speak of him as a protector who keeps their secrets safe. He is “born” out of their shared imagination to make the world feel less intimidating and more like an adventure.
As Latisha’s mental health declines during the rain, Mighty stops being a fun game and starts becoming an unwelcome guest.When Rekha tries to reach Latisha, she feels that Mighty is now blocking the door. He is no longer a small, cuddly thought. He has grown into a heavy shadow that makes Latisha’s room feel dark and cold.The book describes him as a monster of big feelings showing that he has grown larger because Latisha’s sadness and anxiety have grown larger.
By the middle of the 13-day holiday, Mighty represents the anger and silence that comes with feeling overwhelmed.Rekha notices that instead of bringing them together, Mighty is now the reason Latisha won’t speak. He has become a ‘beast’ that feeds on the silence of the monsoon, making Latisha feel like she has to stay hidden to keep the ‘monster’ quiet.
The turning point comes when Rekha realizes that Mighty isn’t a separate creature attacking them, but a part of Latisha herself.Rekha stops trying to ‘fight’ the monster and instead tries to sit with it. She realizes that to help Latisha, she has to be kind to Mighty too. This proves that the monster changed from an imaginary friend and a symbol of healing
The story is written tenderly and will enable a reader to understand the language easily. Word choices such as Rekha describing the flooded, gloomy Mumbai streets as a reflection of Latisha’s “internal weather,” comparing the suffocating grey skies to the invisible “trip wires” of pain that keep her friend trapped inside. The words are easy to understand but also express feelings, actions, and moods clearly. This means the book uses the gloomy weather to describe sad feelings. When Rekha looks at the gray clouds and flooded streets, she isn’t just talking about Mumbai; she is describing how flooded and grey Latisha feels inside. By using words like “trip wires,” Rekha explains that her friend’s mind feels like a trapped place where it is hard to move or be happy, making the storm outside a mirror for the storm in Latisha’s heart.
The monsoon setting adds a very nice element and symbol to the story, especially for readers who are used to the rhythm and experience of monsoons in the Western region of India. The author uses the sounds of rain and how rain is used as a metaphor in the story, and this makes an easy-to-see emotional connection to the story. For example, the writer explains in the text the sounds “feeling like the drumming noise of the rains and the muddy streets.” It is also easy to understand as children know the feeling of rain. We can see the author compares a rainy day to the sadness in the dark clouds, how a child’s mind can be heavy at times. She makes mental stress easy to explain.
The rainy streets of Mumbai and school being closed make the setting real and easy to imagine. It shows how children feel and act in their everyday life, and the little notes to Mighty connect more to the text. The book deals with the central theme of friendship and other themes like mental stress or anxiety, childhood darkness.
The author is able to balance the gaps as she shows how friendships grow between the social gaps. But if thought about more in depth, how will it look from a child’s view? For example, a less privileged child might think that Rekha is just sent to solve a luxury child’s problems. This can make it a little imbalanced.
The stance of the writing is clear. The story is told from Rekha’s point of view, and there is the reflection of what is imagined to be Latisha’s life in the story. But for children who may read with more mirroring of Latisha’s world, we need to wonder if the representation is fair and adequate.
In the story, we mainly see Rekha’s growth, her curiosity, care, and emotional maturity. However, Latisha’s experiences are not shown in depth. Because the story is told entirely through Rekha’s eyes, we don’t fully understand Latisha’s feelings or how she overcomes her struggles. This is a gap in perspective: the story focuses on one side of friendship, leaving the other side less explored. In short, the book is strong in showing friendship across differences and emotional growth, but a deeper view of Latisha’s world and struggles would give a fuller picture of the friendship.
Rain Holiday leaves us with a profound understanding of how friendship acts as an anchor during life’s most difficult storms. We feel Rekha’s transformation deeply, moving from a place of confusion to a position of “mature grace” as she learns that she cannot “fix” Latisha, but she can certainly walk beside her. By using the sensory weight of the Mumbai monsoon, the author makes us feel the literal sadness, yet balances it with the imaginative warmth of “Mighty.” It is a story that makes us realize that even when the “internal weather” is grey and suffocating, the simple act of showing up is a powerful form of light.
However, we are also left with a sense of quiet longing to truly know the girl behind the closed door. While we grow alongside Rekha, we feel the weight of Latisha’s unexplored silence and the “gap in perspective” that leaves her recovery partially in the shadows. This makes the book not just a story to be read, but a starting point for a larger conversation. We see that while the caregiver’s journey is vital and moving, a full picture of friendship requires us to eventually look through the “huge windows” of those who are suffering, ensuring their internal world is just as seen and understood as the world of those trying to save them.
Further Recommendations
- Harshikaa Udasi, Friends Behind Walls( Penguin Random House India, 2020)
- Lynda Mullaly Hunt,Shouting at the Rain (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2019)
- Arti Sonthalia, Best Friend Forever(Scholastic India, 2018)
- Varsha Seshan, Fishbowl (Penguin Random House, 2024.)
- Sampurna Chattarji, Ela ( Scholastic India 2013)