Water booklist

As I set about putting together this water booklist I had a couple of criteria for this list. First I wanted to focus on fresh water, so that immediately eliminated large numbers of books, next I wanted to focus on the water cycle, animals near water, and people interacting with water. My big dream was to also possibly find some fairy tales or folklore that was related to water that I didn’t know offhand. With that in mind, I put together a fairly decent water booklist to add to my Ultimate list of Booklists!

(there are of course loads of affiliate links in here)

Nonfiction water booklist

I have a fun assortment of books here. I have some books on the water cycle, some books on how we get water, animals near water, and then finally some books on people’s struggle to get water. I felt that last one is important to highlight if you can find books on it.

• When a Cloud becomes a Cloud– this is a very anthropomorphized water cycle, all of the steps have faces, but it’s a good book with plenty of information
• Smithsonian Little Explorer: Water– this book covers the different states of water has some simple experiments you can do with the water, then it goes on to cover the water cycle, and different bodies of water. Lots of information in a 32-page book.
• Why Does It Rain?– this book is going to be too much for most kids, but if your kid is really interested in the water cycle, then this is the book for you.
• Water, Water Everywhere– another book that covers the water cycle, including in different weather (rain, snow, etc), but then goes on to describe how the water gets to your faucet. This is an older book, 1995, so it’s out of print and you can tell from the older style of illustrations
• Whoosh! A watery world of wonderful creatures– this book covers all sorts of creatures that live in both fresh and salt water, so I broke my own rule a little bit, BUT I loved how this book emphasized how different animals move in the water and what they do there and made it sound like an adventure to find the animal
• Baby animals in water habitats– kids love to learn all about young animals, and this gives them an opportunity to do that
• All Night Near the Water– back when the kids were little, I knew if Jim Arnosky wrote the book, the kids would like it. I still think his books are amazing.
• Water Lady– This would be the area I’m most familiar with, for a couple of summers years ago, I worked with a missionary in the Navajo and one of the many things she did was take water to people and help people dig wells or dig outhouses. My kids actually helped dig a couple of outhouses one summer, there is a lot of politics on the reservation to get running water to your house
• Water Dragon– I was not expecting the ending of this, I should have, but I didn’t. This follows many traditional fairy tale tropes, and I really liked the twist ending, which probably was not as much of a twist as I thought.

Okay, funny story, I went to lookup Water Dragon, and I even put in the author, and here is what came up.

I think that second book might be slightly different from the other books on this booklist. Just a guess, I don’t want to check it out for my water booklist.

OH! Before I forget

I’ve put a printable form of this booklist up on the subscriber page, you get the password if you join my newsletter. There are dozens of booklists there, and hundreds of resources.

I send an email once a week, and when you join, you get three welcome emails over 3 days with coupons to buy several products free.

More water-related learning

Back when the kids were in kindergarten we obviously did a few water-related activities, and over the years we’ve done a few more activities too.

• Water filtration lesson
• Why do people float in saltwater
• How water moves
• How hot water moves
• Water striders

Fiction water booklist

Some of these actually cover real events but told in a very fictional manner.

• We are Water Protectors– I love the illustrations in this story, I don’t think it’s the best book, because it became more message than story (this may be more obvious because the prose is not super fluid), BUT it is a good message overall, so I’m not going to complain.
• Nibi’s Water Song– On a similar topic, but I felt it worked better, and I’m not sure why it works better than We are Water Protectors, because I like the illustrations better on it. Either way, both books emphasize how often water available on various reservations are not in good shape
• The Water Princess-This takes place in Africa as a young girl walks miles with her mother to gather water, I have a friend who is involved in a ministry that helps get clean water for people in Burundi, you can read about that in our Burundi Unit
• Water Can Be– A very short, the goal is not the words, but the images book on all the things water can do, there could be some fun extension activities with this book