Seven Skies All at Once

by Ted Kooser, Matt Myers (illustrator)

The skies are hanging their freshly washed—and sweepingly illustrated—clouds out to dry in Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Ted Kooser’s celestial ode to an approaching rainstorm.

One sky unpins damp sheets of cirrus. Another wads cirrocumulus into a basket woven of sunbeams. Still others carry away armloads of altocumulus and drag moth-eaten gray blankets of stratus past. At last, a colossal cumulonimbus sweeps in, squeezing out the light to herald . . . rain! What emerges is a sky like a great green laundry basket with a rainbow for a handle. Full of wit and brilliant linguistic surprises, this poetic romp by former United States Poet Laureate Ted Kooser is as playfully theatrical as it is evocative. Matt Myers’s dynamic artwork stages the weather with aplomb, capturing the distinct mood of each show-stopping sky and crafting a meteorological drama of epic proportions. Like a good, rousing rainstorm, Seven Skies All at Once calls eloquently on our senses, inviting us to pause and reflect on the ever-changing wonders all around.

Genres: Picture Books, Poetry

32 pages, Hardcover

First published July 8, 2025

About the author

Ted Kooser lives in rural Nebraska with his wife, Kathleen, and three dogs. He is one of America's most noted poets, having served two terms as U. S. Poet Laureate and, during the second term, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his collection, Delights & Shadows. He is a retired life insurance executive who now teaches part-time at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. The school board in Lincoln, Nebraska, recently opened Ted Kooser Elementary School, which Ted says is his greatest honor, among many awards and distinctions. He has published twelve collections of poetry and three nonfiction books. Two of the latter are books on writing, The Poetry Home Repair Manual and Writing Brave and Free, and a memoir, Lights on a Ground of Darkness (all from University of Nebraska Press. Bag in the Wind from Candlewick is his first children's book, with which he is delighted. "It's wonderful," Ted said, "to be writing for young people. I am reinventing myself at age 70."

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a proud member of the Cloud Appreciation Society, I really enjoyed this one. The art was wonderful, the analogy to laundry was stretched a bit, and didn’t always work, but a great cloud book anyway.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seven Skies All At Once (2025) by former US poet laureate Ted Kooser, illustrated by Matt Myers might be a case of “too soon” or “too late,” in its celebration of storms. You don’t want to open this book to read to kids in a Texas library at the moment, for example. But I am a huge fan of Kooser’s poetry and other picture books, and as a Nebraska resident, he knows first hand what a Big Sky storm looks like.

This picture book enacts a familiar imagination game you play with kids: What do those clouds look like? To Kooser, in in this book, different clouds look like sheets drying on the line in the yard; wadded up underwear and socks; fancy pillowcases; a moth-eaten, dirty woolen blanket.
Kooser also teaches you what kinds of clouds you are seeing: cirrus, cirrocumulus, altocumulus, stratus, colossal cumulonimbus, then rain!

The challenge in the illustration is clouds, distinguishing them from each other, mostly white.
Ultimately, this book encourages imagination and teaches children about the science of weather, a crucially important thing to pay attention to these days. And this is a great, playful poet, teaching you scientific language and lyrical language with which to see and understand the world.

[Sheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good read-aloud to show the kinds of clouds and how they look before and after a storm. The sky in the neighborhood shows changes when different clouds cover the sky and those that bring rain and later rainbows. The two children living in buildings across from each other send messages and watch the formation of the clouds and the rainbow at the end. And the clothesline between the two buildings is fun.

[Ellon · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars (it was okay)

Text was really clunky. I get that it was trying to teach about types of clouds and it was using laundry as a metaphor but the text did not flow. I think the book really needed some back matter to actually explain the cloud types referenced.
I do this the illustrations were beautiful though.

[Pam · Rating 2 out of 5]

First, the artwork is stunning and captures the various types of clouds while bringing out the activity and life in the city. And, while I understand the author's point, I'm not sure the text style will appeal to the intended audience. Kooser weaves information about all seven cloud types into the story but there are some disconnects from what is actually happening.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Teaching about clouds in a story form. It read abit clunky for me, but I loved the images and if you're a grown up who knows what the different clouds are I think you'd appreciate it. But really the images are what made the book.

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kids who love weather and the names of different types of clouds will be enchanted; others may be confused by all of the multi-syllable cloud names that lack explanation. The illustrations are gorgeous.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute book about all the kids of clouds and skies leading up to rain.

[Panda Incognito · Rating 2 out of 5]

The text feels forced, and the book relies on metaphors that young children are unlikely to understand. This one will appeal most to adults.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Fabulous use of perspective, mirroring the washing line in the sky. How my stomach pitched with the angle of the buildings looking up—book makes you feel like you’re doing cartwheels!