• Age: 6 to 8
• Grade: 1 to 3

There’s enough water on this planet to fill 325 million trillion large milk jugs. Dive into The Wonder in Water and discover just what’s in the wet stuff, from the tiniest raindrop to the largest ocean. Start with your own salty sweat. It not only keeps you cool but also feeds the masses of microbes that live on your skin, repelling germs and keeping you healthy.

From sprinkles of sweat, journey on to:
• Falling Raindrops – Water from the sky can contain life as small as an amoeba and as large as a turtle;

• Patchy Puddles – Nurseries for toads, bistros for bugs, or bait for the meat-eating pitcher plant;

• Freshwater Marshes – Where fish and frogs frolic, muskrats and moose mingle;

• Quiet Lakes – Roads for water-walking lizards; winter homes for microscopic life in ice;

• Fast-flowing Rivers – Only for the strong (salmon) or the clingy (black fly larvae);

• Salty Seas – Home to more life than anywhere else on Earth.

Young children will thrill to this watery expedition with Diane Swanson as their guide. There is microscopic photography to amaze, along with images that enhance the engrossing facts in the text and sidebars. Dip into The Wonder in Wate for an exciting adventure in one of nature’s most fascinating habitats.

Diane Swanson has been researching and writing nature books for children for over 25 years. Her work has been recognized with many awards, including the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children. Her titles have been regularly selected for the “our choice” list by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. A frequent guest speaker at conferences on nature for kids, she lives in Victoria, B.C.

Diane Swanson's profile page

“Swanson’s clear, chatty text is packed with fascinating detail ... [the] author’s informal voice will draw kids to the exciting facts about the world around them ... amazing information ... highly readable.” —Booklist, 01/06

“Water, water everywhere. It's cool, it’s liquid, it squirts out of the tap, what else do we need to know? Diane Swanson’s excellent The Wonder in Water will give you the answer: A lot ... Swanson manages to energetically cram just about everything a child ... might like to know about H2O. And then some. There really is a lot of wonder in water and Swanson manages to convey it briskly and well.” —January Magazine Holiday Gift Guide, 12/05

“Swanson does her homework and ... shares what she has learned with ... enthusiasm. The language is clear, the information straightforward and entertaining, the captioned photos are bright and descriptive, and the additional information boxes are filled with appealing and often surprising facts.”—Brandon Sun, 01/07/06

“... an ideal book for inquisitive readers.”—Canadian Bookseller, 10/05

“Young children will learn what's in water and why it is important for life on Earth. And they'll have a lot of fun doing.”—Statesman Journal, 12/18/05

“... well-laid-out and attractively illustrated ...”—Globe and Mail, 10/22/05