I first saw Water Land, pre-publication, at a conference where both Christy Hale and I were presenting. I was completely dazzled.

The published version is just as wonderful as I had remembered. Hale starts with a simple insight–that both water and land can form analogous shapes. She then uses brilliant book design to connect each land form with an analogous water form. These analogous pairs are shown in paired spreads. The first spread has a single word, describing a landform. A die-cut shows the landform. When you turn the page, the die-cut now shows the analogous water form.

So, for example, the first spread says “Lake,” and has a die-cut circle, showing a blue lake in a landscape. The next spread says “Island,” and now the die-cut, peeking back at the previous page’s land, forms an island in the middle of the blue sea.

Hale’s illustrations on each page are very kid-friendly. They show children around each geographic feature, and they have lots of tiny jokes on them, just waiting to be found: a shark at a swimming beach, a bear in a pup tent, pirates.

The back matter is on a gatefold page that opens up into a world map many times larger than the book, showing on the map each of the features highlighted in the book. The opposite side of the map includes a more precise definition of each geographic feature and a list of major examples of each.

Water Land: Land and Water Forms Around the World by Christy Hale. Neal Porter Press: 2018.

Alyson Beecher hosts the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge at kidlitfrenzy.com. Visit there for more great nonfiction picture books!