The Drop in My Drink by Meredith Hooper and Chris Coady
| The Drop in My Drink by Meredith Hooper and Chris Coady | |
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| Category: Children's Non-Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Hilary Hawkes
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| Summary: This brilliant book tells the story of where water comes from in a wonderfully captivating way. It takes the reader on an inspiring, exciting and eye-opening journey through millions of years – the same journey one little drop of water in one child' cup may have taken! | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 36 | Date: November 2015 |
| Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books | |
| ISBN: 978-1847807144 | |
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This brilliant book tells the story of where water comes from in a wonderfully captivating way. In full colour picture book style, it does far more than explain scientific facts about our planet, the way life has evolved and where our water comes from. It takes the reader on an inspiring, exciting and eye-opening journey through millions of years – the same journey one little drop of water in one child' cup may have taken!
From the very first pages I could tell this definitely was going to be anything but a dull book of facts. The language has a lovely poetic feel to it in many places and this really drew me into the subject. One minute I was reading how water trickles and seeps and flows. It freezes into hard ice, It floats in the air. It is liquid and solid and vapour. It is never still and so on – and then the wonderful fact : All the water we have is all the water we've always had.
The book goes on to explain, with brilliantly vivid descriptive language, the extraordinary way the earth formed and how all life forms were, at first, within the oceans. Eventually life on dry land evolved – but, of course, still needed water. So the reader gets the idea of the immense importance of water and life's dependency on it. Then the possible journey of one tiny drop of water is suggested – perhaps it was part of rain in rainforests fifteen million years ago. Or part of rivers that cut through and shaped land. Or maybe part of an iceberg… you get the idea. The continuous cycle and process of rain, evaporation and movement is explained through this wonderful water drop adventure, until we see that the water in the tap tumbling into one little boy's drinking glass could actually contain the very same drop that began its first travels millions of years ago. What a wonderful way to capture a child's imagination.
The illustrations complement the author's captivating style perfectly: full page colour with the text on every page. The pictures are detailed, realistic, strong and dramatic and really give a sense of past eras and the different landscapes around the world. I loved them. One of my favourites was the two page spread illustration of the ice-bergs and penguins leaping into the sea – and on another page that huge, scary snake curled around the forest vines.
At the end there is a useful section on how we need to look after our water supplies and a simple and clearly illustrated water cycle process explanation - so a great way of summing up all the facts and ideas from earlier in the book. Children love amazing or little known bits of information and so, for inquiring young minds, some handy water facts are there too. I was quite relieved to see that if all the water in the atmosphere fell at once it would be manageable.
I can see teachers using this brilliantly exciting discovery of a book with their primary aged pupils. You could base a project about water or the environment around the ideas. It would be a very worthy addition to any class library and, of course, at home. I found it so colourful and captivating. Science/non-fiction books for children need to be like this: presenting their subject in an intriguing, entertaining and inspiring way, while at the same time being accurate (the author is a specialist in her field) and educational. Perfect for informing today's young science and nature lovers.
Thank you to the publisher for supplying a copy for review.
If they enjoy this one then they might also like Oceans in 30 Seconds by Jen Green and Wesley Robins.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Drop in My Drink by Meredith Hooper and Chris Coady at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Drop in My Drink by Meredith Hooper and Chris Coady at Amazon.com.
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