Water Is Water: A Book about the Water Cycle by Miranda Paul (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Water Is Water: A Book about the Water Cycle by Miranda Paul Elizabeth Bush Paul, Miranda Water Is Water: A Book about the Water Cycle; illus. by Jason Chin. Porter/Roaring Brook, 2015 40p ISBN 978-1-59643-984-9 $17.99 R 4-8 yrs As a sister and brother pass through a cycle of seasons, occupied with play, school, and family time, the water that nurtures their world undergoes continual change. Vapor that cools high in the sky takes on fascinating shapes: “A dragon in a wagon?/A crow kneading dough?/ Clouds are clouds unless . . . / they form low.” A page turn moves the cloud-gazing kids from summer into autumn, where they stand among fallen leaves and wait for their school bus to emerge over a fog-banked rise: “Misty. Twisty./ Where is the town?/ Fog is fog unless . . . / it falls down.” Here they arrive at school just in time for the “patter. Splatter” of rain. While the states of water are described in everyday language throughout the linked verses, a concluding note, with thumbnails referring to specific points in the text, offers additional information and more precise terminology. Younger children can easily follow pictures and poem to connect a puddle soaking the roots of a tree with the apples pressed into cider in the next spread; older listeners and independent readers can turn to the back pages and learn about “seepage,” “uptake,” and the watery composition of the apples that are squeezed for their liquid. Watercolor scenes invite close examination—brother chases sister off the school bus with a garter snake; neighbor kids armed with snowballs sneak around the corner of the house to ambush snowman makers; sister’s butterfly kite gets stuck in a tree; a novice skater crashes into a snowbank. Lists of sources and children’s materials for further reading are included. Follow this, if possible, with a group walk around the block to talk about where the water is. [End Page 560] Copyright © 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois