Water Water

A young girl is staying near a beautiful lake. She spends the day exploring the interesting rocks and looking for water creatures—minnows, bass, water snails, crayfish—as she swims through the clear water of the lake. When she comes up, she can watch the swallows flying and see islands and a spectacular sunset. In the morning, a storm blows in and sparks the girl’s imagination. She thinks the shoals are large animals—whales, the Loch Ness monster, and more. She thinks about the hulls of steamships at the bottom of the lake and the sturgeon swimming around them. She thinks what it would be like to swim among them.

Author and illustrator Jessica Bromley Bartram has written a dreamy story accompanied by glorious illustrations that are really the heart of the book. The colors are, for the most part, quite muted, and the illustrations have a soft, dreamy quality to them. The text is quite lyrical, with a lot of alliteration. The story is told from the first-person perspective by the girl in the book. It’s a very effective work that will capture the interest of youngsters and those who read to them.