Recommended Age: 3 - 8 years
Drop, an informational picture book written and illustrated by Emily Kate Moon is a great read for three to eight-year-olds. The personified water droplet is around four and half billion years old! She takes us through a few places she’s been over the years while teaching readers about the water cycle. Drop has seen dinosaurs, lived in glaciers, sunk beneath bedrock, and been a part of thunderstorms. While going through Drop's life, we learn a bit about how plants drink, how lightning is created and how fruits get juicy!
Illustrations are rightly done in watercolor format. Moon manages to give a drop of water many emotions and expressions that leaves you rooting for her in each adventure. Readers will find cute illustrated graphs of the water cycle and states of water at the beginning and end of the book. Each provides clear definitions and easy to follow cycle. I love the little phrases used to define solid, liquid and gas; “hold still”, “stretch” and “go with the flow”. Moon made good use of font changes and text to add depth to the story.
This quick comprehensible read is waiting to draw in your little learner and inspire them to explore more. Some easy ways to do that are by creating your own water experiment, eating a popsicle before it melts, or creating your own watercolor masterpiece! Further learning can be found this summer with the New York Public Library which is offering several free classes for kids where they will explore the waterways of NYC and beyond. Use this link to look for the free events with the title Kids Summer Cruise.
Amanda is a preschool teacher, mother and avid Central Park picnicker. She values community and is an advocate for families in the foster care system. One day she hopes to publish a children's book of her own. In the meantime, you can follow her Instagram, Enchanted Literacy, which encourages imagination and passion for reading.
