Water Land: Land and Water Forms 
Around the World
by Christy Hale; illus. by the author
Primary, Intermediate    Porter/Roaring Brook    32 pp.
5/18    978-1-250-15244-2    $17.99

Die-cuts serve both useful and playful purpose in this introduction to Earth’s various meetings of water and landforms. A boy idyllically fishes on a small pond while a girl plays with falling leaves ashore; turn the page, and the pond becomes an island on which the girl is stranded, one red leaf having morphed into a campfire puffing an SOS to the still-daydreaming boy, now fishing in the ocean! The cleverness continues as a bay becomes a cape, a strait an isthmus, and so on, with funny little human dramas to encourage close examination. A blue and beige color scheme provides a clear focus, while drops of other colors sketch the extra-credit stories. There is considerable bonus material in the form of a spectacular closing foldout, three times the size of the book, with definitions of the geographic terms on one side and a map of the whole planet on the other, encouraging readers to use the map to explore these land and water forms themselves. Heavy cardstock pages will stand up to much perusal.

From the July/August 2018 issue of The Horn Book Magazine: Special Issue: ALA Awards.