The Drop in my Drink: The Story of Water on our Planet

Frances Lincoln strikes another blow against all those books with shiny, happy children in ironed tee-shirts discovering the laws of nature with a piece of string, a saucepan and a balloon. If you have seen Hooper and Coady's The Pebble in my Pocket (a paean to the roadside rock), you will know already that the world is big (limitless!), old (ancient!) and marvellous (awesome!): and here is the poetic prose and swirling illustration to prove it. This picture book is an attempt to convey the significance of water to life on earth, for 8-12 year olds, through a text which strives for excitement in its use of language; and where meaning comes as much from the movement and music of the words as from their sense. At times it is impressive. The double page spread on water carving out the landscape tells how 'water and ice drag gravel, sand and silt endlessly downwards. Shifting, stripping, scraping, grinding. Eroding, rearraging.' 'All the water we have is all the water we have always had,' is an eloquent injunction to conservation. It would be difficult for most children below the age of 10 to read this for themselves but it cries out to be read to them. I admire it, but I am not quite convinced. I would have liked a rest occasionally from the significance of it all, when the text and colours might have been less intense. Was there a last minute lack of nerve in the pale description of the water cycle and the list of banal water facts ('a chicken is 74% water') at the back of the book?