Water Dance
Illustrated by Thomas Locker
“I am one thing. / I am many things. / I am water.”
This picture book demonstrates the “life cycle” of water. With realistic, page-size oil paintings in soft yet lush colors, Locker illustrates his poetic text on the phases and journeys that water makes from rain falling from the sky through tumbling waterfalls in the mountains to lakes, rivers, and the sea. He picks up the journey there to show evaporation of water as mist that builds up to clouds and then storms that bring water back down to earth again in a never-ending cycle. Even the rainbow is part of water’s wondrous journey over the earth! Pages at the back of the book explain the science of each phase of water depicted, making this picture book additionally appropriate for older readers as well as further informing the poetry and art of the main text.
Water Dance may enhance readers’ and listeners’ understanding and appreciation of this vital natural resource and help build a desire to keep water clean. Idyllic illustrations show water in the wilderness with no signs of pollution. Why would anyone want to make water dirty or interfere with it natural cycle of replenishing itself? The book lends itself to discussion of water within the larger framework of science/climate but also as a worthy subject for both poetry and art. The interconnectedness of science, poetry, and art within the book bolsters the relationship between human beings and water—form matches subject, in other words. There are no human beings in the images, either, which also draws the reader closer to a direct connection with the subject. By showing all the forms of water depicted and described so lyrically as well as artistically, one only wishes the author had included the water phases of snow and ice. Water Dance encourages contemplation that the water we see as rain today is not “new” as much as it is transformed and “recycled” from water on the earth that has come before. Engaging with this book is an enlightening and thoughtful exercise for anyone (at any age) interested in the planet, maintaining its resources, and its natural, poetic beauty.
©2024 ClimateLit (Connie Ann Kirk)
Publisher: Clarion Books, 1997
Pages: 32
Lexile Score: 310L
ISBN: 978-0-15-216396-9
Audience: Ages 0-3, Ages 14+, Ages 4-7, Ages 8-13
Format: Picturebooks, Poetry and Short Stories
Topics: Ecopoetry, Interconnectedness, Natural Resources, Nature, Nature Art, Nature's Aliveness, Nature's Cycles, Oceans, Poetry, Visual Art, Water, Water Cycle, Weather, Wilderness, Wonder