What Is a River? approaches the inquiry at its heart from all sides and angles, creating a richly imagined story woven of many answers, rather than a single explanation. A river is a thread, a home, a mystery, a name. This beautifully illustrated nonfiction picture book gives space to answers both conceptual and factual.
What is a river? It's water, the source of life. It's also a journey, visiting mountains, cities, and oceans. It's a home; it's shelter. It's energy, giving away its force to humans for power and industry. It's a meeting place; a memory; a place to wash, to find food, to dream; it's a word.
Such is a river.
★Included in American Scientist’s 2021 Holiday Gift Guide★
“‘[The river] has hidden depths beneath its surface. Just like people,’ observes the little girl who narrates this poetic children’s book. Its title, What Is a River?, is a question she asks her grandma, [who] gives an appropriately meandering and deep answer as she embroiders a tablecloth, which is a metaphor for the theme of interconnectedness emphasized in the book. Her answer is made up of a lovely balance of facts and metaphors, accompanied by pencil and mixed-media illustrations. A river is a thread connecting people across space and time, a journey, a home to all sorts of living things, a refreshment, a name, a meeting place, a mystery, a history, a smell, depth, energy, a reflection of humanity, a connection, a flow, and a story constantly being written. No one definition or metaphor can fully describe a river. But by the end of the book, a child reading it has a sense of what a river is, not just physically or geographically, but also in essence—emotionally, culturally, and historically… The layout of What Is a River? makes it possible for readers to take quick dips as they turn the pages, or to dive deeper into the many tributaries and pools that the narrator and her grandma explore as they journey through this reverie.” —American Scientist
