It’s a story within a story, with multiple levels of meaning.  The introductory story is of a young mouse who is frightened during a storm, having previously experienced a destructive hurricane; her papa calms her with a story, a nod to the power of books.  The story he shares, told in rhyme, tells of a violent storm that destroys all a rhino holds dear, and the rhino reacts by swallowing the storm, but as a result finds himself alone at the bottom of a very deep hole.  The rest of the story, which involves the other animals helping to rescue Rhino from the hole, coming together to starting putting their world to rights, and counseling Rhino to let go of the storm he’s holding inside, is both a literal and a figurative story, both about communities working together to assist each other after devestation does occur, and about the dangers of holding our emotions bottled up inside.  It’s a comforting story to help young children recognize that bad things do happen, but we’re never really left alone to cope with them.