Today’s picture book is stunning in its scope.  It tries to answer any question a child might have about water, in any aspect.  WOW!

Olga Fadeeva is the author and illustrator of Wind: Discovering Air in Motion (Eerdmans) and many other books for children. In a starred review, Kirkus called Wind “thoroughly engaging.masterful in both design and imagery.” Olga’s art has been honored in Italy, China, and her home country of Russia. You can learn more about her and her work by following her on Instagram.

WATER is a nonfiction book about water.  Each page asks a question and is then sprinkled with answers in the form of facts about water.  Literally!  The illustrations were made by sprinkling, dripping, and thinning acrylic paints with water.  The amount of information packed into this book is mind blowing, and the breadth of questions feels absolutely true to the variety of questions a young reader might have.  From “Does water make you wonder?” to “How can we protect our planet’s water?” this book covers water cycles, history, plumbing, ocean life, and so much more.  It truly is a breath-taking amount of information crammed into one little picture book.

Please note: I was also given a copy of the book to review by the publisher (Eerdmans Books), but as always, the opinions are all mine.

Welcome Olga!

Me: Can you tell us a little bit about your writing journey?  When did you start writing stories?  What brought you to writing picture books and this specific book?

Olga: I am a professional illustrator, and I never thought of writing stories. But right after graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts, I started to send my portfolio to publishing houses to illustrate children’s books. My portfolio was so small and boring that I didn’t get any orders. So, I decided to illustrate a classic book but was struggling with choosing one in particular. Finally, my mom suggested I write my own story.

Since then, I have written more than twenty books. I mostly write picture books and chapter books, but sometimes nonfiction as well. Water is my third nonfiction book.

Me: There is so much wonderful information in this book about water.  I can imagine many of my students’ questions being answered just from reading this.  What gave you the idea for this book?

Olga: I am fond of making illustrations and writing nonfiction books. I was also looking for a theme which would be interesting, voluminous, and which can be drawn beautifully. Water immediately came to mind. In addition, I can use all the shades of my favorite color: blue. 

Me: Your book is full of questions and facts, but somehow there seems to be an order or a flow to them.  How many revisions did it take to get your manuscript to this state?

Olga: It was essential for me to build my story from the main points to minor ones because of the book’s limited size and being willing to touch on so many aspects of the topic.

And because of all the information, it was important to combine and put some objects in one spread. For instance, I combined information about rainbows, waterfalls, and geysers in one spread, and both water gods in different cultures and deep sea exploration in another.

Me: I can only imagine that you had to do a ton of research to find all of the information that you share in this story.  Can you tell us a bit about that process?  How long did your research take you?

Olga: All the work for this book, including illustrations, took me almost a half of a year. Yet the most difficult part was not searching for information, but making it accessible to children. For example, how does the water cycle in nature work? Why are the sea and ocean salty and blue? The last question, in my opinion, creates curiosity in every child because it seems surprising.

The second difficulty I faced was how to make all the information visible, how to present it through my illustrations. I looked for compositions that would represent the facts of water as well as help children feel the atmosphere. For instance, on the spread “Why Is It Raining?”, I decided to make my readers not only see the clouds and the river but also a whole continent where there are palm trees growing in one part and it’s snowing in another. On the spread “How Do Rivers Form?”, we are going through time to the prehistoric era, seeing dinosaurs. Then, on the “What Are Lakes?” spread, there are mammoths and the first people. On the “What’s On the Shore?” spread, we see the first boats and ancient cities flowing over to modern metropolises.

Me: You are also the illustrator of this book.  Can you talk about your illustration process?  What medium did you choose and why?  What did your process look like?

Olga: I wanted Water to be made in the same art style as Wind (Eerdmans, April 2023). That is why I chose acrylics and collage.

I am enthusiastic about this technique. Acrylics are such an amazing art supply. They can be light, watery, and transparent like watercolor as well as thick, dense, and full of texture like oil. Besides, the acrylic colors are so vibrant. Collage makes illustrations more decorative, and this process is really amusing, but it does not add order to my house because pieces of papers are everywhere! Whenever I see any piece of paper —it can be a newspaper, flower packaging, or supermarket cheque— I think “is it suitable for collage?”

Me: Of all the facts about water that you include in this book, what was one of your favorites?  Was there a favorite fact about water that you had to leave out?

Olga: I was surprised by the amount of water required to produce almost everything.

For producing only one pair of jeans, you need 8000 liters of water. This makes us think about being more conscious while buying stuff. And, of course, I was amazed that it could rain 247 days in a row.

If I had the opportunity, I would like to make more chapters about ecology.

Me: Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?

Olga: Last, but not least, is the “How Can We Protect Our Planet’s Water?” spread. I would like my readers, after reading and closing this book, to think about protection and reducing waste. I think that is crucial.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today Olga.

Dear readers, this book is released into the world today.  It’s a huge compendium of facts about water on as many aspects as the author-illustrator could cram in.  You won’t want to miss it!