Be Thankful for Water: How water sustains our planet

by Harriet Ziefert, Brian Fitzgerald (Illustrator)

Overview

A gorgeous exploration of water and how it is essential to sustaining life on Earth.

Would life be fun without water? It would not!

Pools for lap swimming, ponds for row boating,
Lazy rivers for paddling and floating,
Canoe in a creek, sail on the blue sea,
And on a big lake stand on one ski.
Snorkel in the ocean, what's down in the deep?
Jump in and splash from a cliff so steep!

Using lilting, rhyming couplets, this book explores the many way that water is essential to our lives and the existence of life on earth. But it doesn’t stop there! Kids will also learn about the many uses of water – and the environmental danger to water posed by pollution and lack of respect for this precious resource. Kids are encouraged to be kind, not only to one another, but to the environment as well.

Kids will view the many forms of water in our lives and will view it in a whole new light after going on an aquatic eco-tour in this gorgeous poem about water.

This book is printed on responsibly sourced, 100% recycled FSC paper.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781636550749
Publisher:	Red Comet Press
Publication date:	11/14/2023
Pages:	80
Sales rank:	974,513
Product dimensions:	7.75(w) x 10.25(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD470L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

HARRIET ZIEFERT wears many hats. A graduate of Smith College, she also holds an MA in Education from NYU. She is the bestselling author of more than 250 children’s books and has developed easy-to-read series for several major publishing houses. As founder of Blue Apple Books, she has published over 500 titles, many of which have become best-selling modern classics. Since childhood Ziefert has always loved to swing, but now, as the mother of two and grandmother of five, she must wait her turn. Harriet Ziefert lives in the Berkshires, Massachusetts, where she is thankful streams, lakes, rain and snow in the winter.

BRIAN FITZGERALD is an internationally recognized, award-winning illustrator of children's books. He is a graduate of Ireland's National College of Art and Design and has also worked on publishing, editorial, and design projects. Brian Fitzgerald lives near Dublin, a port town on the banks of the river Liffy which flows into the Irish Sea and sometimes, quite often actually, it rains, for which he is thankful.

Table of Contents

1. Water is home
2. Water is keeping clean
3. Water is weather
4. Water is recreation
5. Water is health
6. Water is food
7. Water is life

Editorial Reviews

"[A] very attractive ode to the uses of H2O.  . . .  this is an utterly praise-worthy celebration of water.  . . . The illustrations are a perfect fit: Bright, clear, without hard lines or shadows, they depict lots of active animals and lively, racially diverse kids, including several who use wheelchairs. This book will work both for lap and group reading.
This colorful, easy-reading introduction to our planet’s greatest resource makes a splash." –Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2023-09-23
For habitat, cleanliness, weather, recreation, health, nutrition, and life itself, we are indebted to water.

Each of the functions above is the focus of a different section in this very attractive ode to the uses of H2O. Each part begins with a similar rhetorical question about a waterless world: “Could we keep clean without water?” “Would life be fun without water?” “Would our bodies stay healthy without water?” “Would the earth have seasons without water?” Followed by the emphatic answers: “We could not!” “It would not!” “They would not!” “It would not!” At one point the book conflates weather and seasons, and a few verses don’t quite flow, but for the most part, this is an utterly praise-worthy celebration of water. Near the end, a couple of pages suggest watery problems—“man-made debris,” “factory black sludge,” and “old plastic galore”—but we’re soon back to the positive. A final double-page spread features abstract human figures holding signs labeled “Climate Change,” “Water Is a Human Right,” and “There Is No Planet B.” The illustrations are a perfect fit: Bright, clear, without hard lines or shadows, they depict lots of active animals and lively, racially diverse kids, including several who use wheelchairs. This book will work both for lap and group reading.

This colorful, easy-reading introduction to our planet’s greatest resource makes a splash. (Informational picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews