10 June 2019 HEY, WATER! by Antoinette Portis, Holiday House/Neal Porter, March 2019, 48p., ISBN: 978-0-8234-4155-6
“Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Let it run all over me”
--Van Morrison, “And It Stoned Me” (1970)
“Hey, water! I know you!
You’re all around.
You spray up and down.
You trickle and gurgle and rush toward the sea.
You cover most of the earth--salty, surging, and mysterious.”
From teardrops and dewdrops; through puddles, bathtubs and fog; to skating rinks and icebergs; streams, rivers and oceans; HEY, WATER! explores everything H2O. I don’t recall ever seeing a book that celebrates water in so many different forms, and certainly not one that overflows with the joy that this one does.
A girl named Zoe repeatedly appears in the story. She runs through sprinklers; sits in bathtubs; splashes in puddles; stares out at the fog; glories in the falling snow; and then builds a first-class snowman.
The text is kept spare and poetic by labeling each of the water forms that is being illustrated and described in the text. For instance, the phrase “...and rush toward the sea…” is accompanied by a two-page spread depicting, and labeled as, river. “In the morning, you wink at me from blades of grass,” is the text that accompanies a labeled illustration of dewdrop.
This beautifully-illustrated book concludes with four pages of backmatter that explain water forms, the water cycle, water conservation and a short list of recommended water-related titles.
As one for whom bobbing for hours in warm seas is the ultimate experience in life, HEY WATER! made quite a splash.
Richie Partington, MLIS
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