The Rains Are Coming

When Aimee tells her African friends one by one that it is time for her birthday party, each responds (in Kikongo, one of two languages spoken in Zaire, the book's setting), `` Zimvula zeti kwiza ''--``the rains are coming.'' Finally, when the children arrive and Aimee's missionary father returns home, the rains do begin and Aimee's party moves inside. Stanley tells a sweet but slight tale in her debut, one with little drama and a rather anticlimactic conclusion. Her softly colored illustrations, however, are wholly effective, impressing by their very gentleness. Though the composition is a bit repetitious, each picture--occupying three-fourths of its horizontal spread--forms an authentically rendered vignette: skies turn from palest blue to a threatening purplish-gray; daily activities become hasty preparations for the gathering storm. Faces are indistinct: atmosphere is all-important in this agrarian village with wandering chickens and goats, women carrying baskets on their heads, and simple houses with thatched roofs. A visually absorbing, low-key slice-of-life in an exotic locale. Ages 4-up. (Apr.)