B.A Frazier
The weather reporter promises clear skies, but six-year-old Maya Johnson knows that forecast is incomplete. It never checks the weather inside her house-and it definitely never checks her big brother, Andre.When Andre is happy, sunlight seems to fill the kitchen and even the butter looks brighter. When he is restless, wind sends homework papers swooping through the hall. When he is overwhelmed, fog rolls in and his words take longer to find. Maya has learned how to laugh with the sunshine, chase the wind, and wait beside the fog. Then Andre comes home from school beneath a thundercloud and asks for space.Space sounds lonely to Maya, so she tries everything she can think of to bring back the sun. She tells an emergency joke. She asks question after question. She turns on Andre’s favorite song and performs the Wobbly Noodle. Instead of helping, every bright idea makes the room feel louder.Mom offers one gentle suggestion: Maya can listen to Andre’s request and still let him know he is not alone. Maya writes a note with three choices-company, quiet, or help-and slides it under his door. Andre’s answer is not one Maya expected. He chooses quiet company: Maya can stay, but he does not want to talk yet.As Maya colors a rhinoceros wearing far too many rain boots, the thunder moves farther away. Andre reconnects when he is ready and shares only what he wants to share. By breakfast, the forecast is partly cloudy-and that is a perfectly good kind of morning.My Brother Is a Weather Forecast is a warm and humorous picture book for ages 4-8 about sibling care, emotional language, respectful boundaries, and the many ways people may want support. Featuring a loving Black and Afro-Latino family, expressive indoor-weather imagery, natural dialogue, and an ending that does not demand permanent sunshine, the story gives families and classrooms a memorable question to use on hard days: Do you want company, quiet, or help?
