Photo by Georges Nijs via Wikimedia Commons

Water Moves.  A simple idea,  but the enormous importance of the water cycle is often not appreciated.

We learn about the water cycle – rain falls, puddles form, mud oozes down into the earth, surface water evaporates, condenses into rain, sleet or snow, is blown over mountains or oceans, and falls again. But that is only the beginning, the “tip of the iceberg!”

Because water is such a shape-shifter and can change into different forms – a gas, a liquid, a solid – water can move from ocean to desert, from frozen glacier to tropical sea, from your garden hose to my thirsty tomatoes. And because it can change and move, water can travel to where it is needed, above or below the ground. The water we have on our planet Earth, folks, is the only water we have. Since before the time of the dinosaurs, our supply of water has remained the same.

Several delightful picture books present this information in lyrical, visual ways. Laura Purdie Salas’s WATER CAN BE illustrated by Violeta Dabija begins with a winter scene: “Water is water – it’s puddle, pond, sea, When springtime comes splashing, the water flows free.”

The magic of the water cycle nearly splashes off the pages of WATER ROLLS, WATER RISES, EL AGUARUEDA, EL AGUA SUBE written by Pat Mora and illustrated by Meilo So: “Blown by the wind, water sails high. Tumbling cloud plumes curl through the air. Slow into rivers, water slithers and snakes, through silent canyons at twilight and dawn.”

Don’t miss the tumbling, rolling picture book, ALL THE WATER IN THE WORLD, written by George Ella Lyon and illustrated by Katherine Tillotson or the wonderful water-cycle book, WATER IS WATER, by Miranda Paul, illustrated by Jason Chin, which shows the many forms water can take from summer puddles to autumn’s “Slosh in galoshes, Splash to your knees!” From winter’s “Glide, slide, put on the brakes! Ice is ice unless ….” to spring’s,  “Creep. Seep. Squish in your boots.”

For more “water” information, visit my website (www.nancyboflood) where you will also find discussion questions, activity guides, a reader’s theater, and further reading suggestions – nonfiction, poetry, and novels. Become water fluent about this life-sustaining resource.

Leave a comment and your name goes in the “bucket” for a chance to win a copy of WATER RUNS THROUGH THIS BOOK!