Water Dance

by Thomas Locker

Overview

From a gentle mountain pond to a raging waterfall or from a silent ocean mist to a sparkling rainbow, dramatic text and paintings give water voice and substance in this tribute to water in all its glorious forms. Inspiring and informative, Water Dance is a poetic introduction to one of nature’s most basic elements. Scientific facts about water and its role in our lives are included. “Thirteen lushly romantic oil paintings, accompanied by spare, poetic text, offer viewers a sensuous introduction to the water cycle.”--The Bulletin

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780547546414
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	01/20/2015
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
Lexile:	310L (what's this?)
File size:	22 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

THOMAS LOCKER has written and illustrated many award-winning books for children, including the companion titles Water Dance and Mountain Dance. He lives in Stuyvesant, New York.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A happy marriage of art and science."—School Library Journal
"Locker's paintings and text are poetic."—Kirkus Reviews
"Lushly romantic oil paintings . . . [and] poetic text, offer viewers a sensuous introduction to the water cycle."—The Bulletin

Editorial Reviews

"Some people say that I am one thing./ Others say that I am many." In this poetic soliloquy, water proclaims its many manifestations as it courses through its never-ending cycle: "In white-silver veils I rise" as mist; "I float," "I drift" as clouds; "I rise up as gleaming power-filled towers" as a thunderhead; "I am still and deep" as a lake. Locker's (Where the River Begins) traditional landscapes and seascapes illuminate natural splendors with the same serenity and awe found in his previous books; once again, his painterly style makes no concessions to children. A supplement by Candace Christiansen adds scientific explanations of the water cycle and its relationship to wind, weather and atmospheric phenomena. While the rather dense appendix can help adults and older children to understand the changes portrayed, hard information about the hydrologic cycle strikes a discordant note after the simple, poetic text and the landscapes questing after the sublime.

Publishers Weekly - Cahners\\Publishers_Weekly

Water in its many guises and the scientific process that commands the shape it takes—liquid, solid, and gas—are the subjects of this collection of paintings.

A first-person narration covers the journey of water on its circular path, as streams, rivers, and oceans evaporate into fog and clouds, only to return to earth as rain: "I am one thing./I am many things./I am water./This is my dance through our world." Of most interest but relegated to the back of the book are endnotes by Candace Christiansen (with Locker, Sky Tree, 1995) explaining scene-by-scene the various phenomena the painter's brush has recorded, e.g., a brilliant scarlet sunset is the result of low-angled sunlight passing through layers of water vapor. Locker's paintings and text are poetic, but both have a languid, slightly static quality to them. Unlike Sky Tree, in which science facts were incorporated into the body of the text, the paintings don't illustrate the text in any true sense, but sit on the page.

Kirkus Reviews

"A happy marriage of art and science."—School Library Journal
"Locker's paintings and text are poetic."—Kirkus Reviews
"Lushly romantic oil paintings . . . [and] poetic text, offer viewers a sensuous introduction to the water cycle."—The Bulletin
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From the Publisher