All the Water in the World

Pattern-driven digital illustrations pair with concrete verse to express water's cyclical nature: "Thirsty air / licks it from lakes / sips it from ponds / guzzles it from oceans / and this wet air / swirls up." In a bone-colored landscape in another part of the world, a child in a hut and wild animals in a barren tree await a gray storm cloud. When a torrent comes, a lullaby-like line assures: "Honey, / living things dream / of water," and a mother with long, brunette hair embraces her child, droplets from her hair coalescing into tiny animal silhouettes. A lyrical and bighearted outpouring. Ages 4-8. (Mar.) Copyright 2011 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

K-Gr 3--Lyon briefly explains the water cycle in lyrical verse and celebrates its power to give life. "Water doesn't come./It goes./Around./That rain...has been here before," a result of water that evaporates into the air, "swirls up" into the clouds, and comes down again as rain. The precipitation is described as a "tap dance/avalanche/stampede/of drips and drops and drumming--/a wealth of water." In dry areas of the world, however, cups are empty, the soil has turned to dust, and "Everything waits...for rain sweet and loud." The digital collagelike illustrations pair dramatically with the text to depict this contrast. Turquoise endpapers usher in pages with swirls of water, water spouting from a hose, through pipes, down mountains. Rain pours down in horizontal and vertical spreads. But brown and cream-colored pages reveal a bare landscape where a little girl and animals alike anxiously anticipate an approaching rain cloud. At last, "this wet wonder" arrives and flows through all creatures, including a young child and mother whose water-sprinkled hair spreads across the pages to become a swirl of tiny creatures and plants. "Honey, living things dream of water...so precious," says the narrator. We must "keep it clear, keep it clean... keep Earth green!" Filled with rhythm and sound, this offering begs to be read aloud. Rochelle Strauss's One Well: The Story of Water on Earth (Kids Can, 2007) discusses the importance of water for older children.--Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

* "Lots of picture books introduce young children to the water cycle, but few have such an infectious beat and eye-catching illustrations as this title, which begs to be read aloud. With occasional rhymes, the short, poetic lines are conversational and instructive and evoke a sense of mystery.... What kids will respond to immediately, though, are the noisy, delicious sounds and rhythms in the words as well as the kinetic energy in the beautifully composed, atmospheric digital illustrations, which have the richly patterned and textured look of paint-and-paper collage. Playfully arranged type in changing fonts adds to the visual fun while giving cues for energizing read-alouds. On the final, stunning spreads, a mother's hair swirls into a wave of water that becomes a joyful spiral of living creatures, all reinforcing the simple, profound message: our lives depend on 'so precious' water."
—BOOKLIST, March 15, 2011, *STAR