The Swishing Shower

English
EDITION
The Swishing
Shower
Tuula Pere
Catty Flores
W
ickWick

The Swishing Shower

The Swishing Shower
Story by Tuula Pere
Illustrations by Catty Flores
Layout by Peter Stone
English translation by Mirka Pohjanrinne
Edited in English by Susan Korman
ISBN 978-952-325-457-2 (Hardcover)
ISBN 978-952-325-458-9 (Sof tcover)
ISBN 978-952-325-459-6 (ePub)
First edition
Copyright © 2021 Wickwick Ltd
Published 2021 by Wickwick Ltd
Helsinki, Finland
Originally published in Finland by Wickwick Ltd in 2021
Finnish “Sihisevä suihku”, ISBN 978-952-325-460-2 (Hardcover), ISBN 978-952-325-462-6 (ePub)
English “The Swishing Shower”, ISBN 978-952-325-457-2 (Hardcover), ISBN 978-952-325-459-6 (ePub)
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English
EDITION
The Swishing Shower
Tuula Pere • Catty Flores
W
ickWick
Children’s Books from the Heart
1

2

Niles is playing with mo_deling clay
in his room. From the bathroom
next door, he can hear screaming. His
little brother, Sam, is taking a shower
before bedtime.
“I want to get out! There’s soap in my
eyes!” Sam yells.
The noises coming from the bathroom
upset Niles. His little brother is scared
of taking a shower.
3

Niles goes to the bathroom to see if he can help. Mom
is trying to teach Sam to stand in the shower. But it’s
not easy. The grumpy little brother is standing in the corner
of the room.
“The shower is not nice at all! I want my baby tub,” Sam
insists.
“Mom, why does Sam have to take a shower if he’s scared?”
Niles asks. “Couldn’t you just bathe him in the baby tub?”
“Sam is not a baby anymore. He’s too big for the baby
tub,” Mom explains.
4

5

6

Niles tries to remember what it was
like when he was Sam’s age. At first,
he didn’t like taking a shower either, even
though he liked playing in the water.
Then Niles remembers something fun—his
old umbrella. He got used to taking a shower
by standing under the umbrella while
singing a rain song with Mom.
“Mom, Sam needs an umbrella, and then
we can sing together!” Niles says excitedly.
7

At first, Mom looks surprised, but then she remembers
the game they used to play together.
“That’s a good idea, Niles! We’ll look for your
old umbrella for tomorrow. Perhaps it’s in
the closet in the hallway,” Mom says.
“I’ll go and look!” Niles rushes into the
hallway.
Behind their shoes, he finds a little umbrella
with pictures of animals on it.
I’m sure Sam will like my
idea. Tomorrow I’ll help him
wash up before bedtime, the
big brother thinks.
8

9

It’s time for a bedtime wash again. Little Sam tries to
run away as soon as someone mentions the shower.
Niles shows the umbrella to his brother and promises
that taking a shower will be fun tonight. They are going
to play and sing.
“I don’t want to get water in my face!” Sam insists.
10

“There won’t be any water running down
your head, I promise. That’s why we
have this umbrella,” the big brother
assures him. “Look for yourself!”
11

12

Mom and Sam watch Niles turn on the
shower and go under the water with
the umbrella. Sam starts to laugh when he
sees his big brother goofing around.
“Now let’s sing a rain song together,” Niles
says.
13

Luckily, Mom remembers the song that she
taught Niles years ago. It’s a fun song about a
teddy bear who gets soaking wet in the rain.
“Come here! I’ll hold the umbrella to cover both of
us,” Niles says. He wraps his arm around his little
brother to keep him safe.
Mom and Niles start to sing the rain song. Little
Sam tries to hum along, but he’s mostly focused
on curling his toes in a puddle of
water.
14

15

Then Sam crouches on the bathroom floor, happily
splashing water with his hands.
Mom puts a washbowl beside the boys and squeezes
bubble bath into the water.
“Here are some bubbles for you!” Mom exclaims,
smiling.
Sam stirs the soapy water so it foams up over the
sides of the bowl. Niles holds the umbrella carefully
over Sam’s head.
16

17

When Niles looks up, Mom is frowning a little. Niles can
tell she’s wondering how to make sure Sam gets clean.
Shampooing his hair will be especially tricky.
Niles smiles at her. “You figured out how to wash me, Mom. I’m
sure you can figure out the best way to clean Sam in the shower!”
And indeed Mom does. She washes Sam with a washcloth
and then rinses him so he doesn’t have to
stand under the water.
“What a clean boy you are!” Mom
says.
Sam doesn’t like taking a shower yet,
but washing up tonight was much
more fun than last night.
Tomorrow they will practice
some more.
18

19

The next evening, Sam sits under the umbrella all
by himself. Beside him, Niles and Mom sing the
rain song for encouragement.
Getting excited, Sam starts doing a rain dance. The
umbrella is swinging so hard that water drips on his
face too.
“No, no!” the little brother screams, startled.
Niles shows him how he can close his eyes and his
mouth. Sam imitates him. Now he no longer minds
the water coming from the shower.
20

21

Af ter a few showers with his big brother’s help,
Sam starts to look forward to his bedtime wash.
“What are we going to play in the shower today?” he
asks.
“Why don’t we set up a café in there?”
Niles suggests.
They put some cups and mugs on
the bathroom floor. It’s fun to play
with them. They pretend Mom is
their customer and bring her some
cof fee.
22

23

Soon the old umbrella is no longer needed.
Now Sam knows how to take a shower all by himself.
He likes when the warm water drips down from
his head all the way to his toes. The children’s soap
smells good and it doesn’t sting his eyes.
“Of f to bed, boys! We’ll do this again tomorrow,” Mom
says, and turns of f the swishing shower.
The apple-scented brothers put on their clean pajamas.
Now it’s time for their bedtime story.
24

25

Little Sam doesn’t like taking a shower at all. It’s very
noisy in the bathroom because of an echo coming
of f the tiles. On top of that, he inhales water and
gets soap in his eyes.
“I want my baby bathtub!” Sam screams.
Then big brother Niles comes to the rescue. Under
their toy umbrella, the brothers sing a rain song
together. And soon, the little brother is fearlessly
standing under running water.
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