What I Think About When I Think About... Swimming by Eleanor Levenson and Katie O'Hagan

What I Think About When I Think About... Swimming by Eleanor Levenson and Katie O'Hagan
Buy What I Think About When I Think About... Swimming by Eleanor Levenson and Katie O'Hagan at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: For Sharing
Reviewer: Rachael Spencer
Summary: What do you think about when you think about swimming? It turns out there are oh so many things to think about, and Eleanor Levenson and Katie O'Hagan will take you through some of them in this charming and sometimes challenging book for all kinds of ages.
Buy? Maybe	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 32	Date: May 2014
Publisher: Troika Books
ISBN: 9781909991026
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On the face of it, this is a very simple book. Straight forward images and very few words would lead you to believe that this was a book for a very young audience. This is not, however, the case. While it does work well for a younger reader, it also manages to raise some very interesting questions, such as that of climate change or 'what it will be like to be old'. This makes for an intriguing read, as there are times where the juxtapositioning of the images and text make it a little difficult to pitch.

However, upon further reading, I think this could work really well as the rather upbeat images can make it easier to tackle these more difficult topics, which is always a good thing for a parent. I feel like it has a good sense of humour underlying it, even if it is not a laugh out loud book, and it is always refreshing to find an author who doesn't talk down to a picture book audience.

I would suggest that it was a book to skim through yourself first, before reading with your children, just so that you can decide first if you think it is an appropriate read, but I suspect that most kids would thoroughly enjoy this book. The text works in a really nice way, by only giving one line per page in a way which invites anybody reading to expand on each page. The pictures, though simple, are bold and entertaining and manage to make a good, strong lead character out of the fish despite there being little in the way of text or plot.

This is a good book for children with big imaginations, and though it may not be to everybody's taste, I think it is a brave text which isn't afraid to treat children as the inquisitive, insightful individuals that they are.

If you're looking for a book to stretch that big imagination, you could try How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers.

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