Splish Splash by Joan Bransfield GrahamI

I was immediately drawn to this book (which is a collection of poems about water's many forms) by the cover. The illustrations were made from Adobe Illustrator 5.0 and reproduced in full color. Something about these pictures made me want to read more.

Along with the short poems about the various forms of water, there were illustrations that were integrated in meaningful ways. The one I really liked was called Crocodile Tears and the text made the shape of a crocodile in a pond. I thought it was clever and a fun surprise.

I think kids would really like to read along with this collection of poems. The illustrations work well together with the subject, thus creating a more cohesive product. This could be a great trade book to use when studying water in science (connecting seldomly read poems with content areas). Using this as a read aloud or choral reading would be fun with younger students. I think this would be fun to use as a way to introduce students to publishing poetry in unique ways.