13 Important Children's Books About Drought

With reservoir levels at historic lows, many Bay Area counties have already declared a water shortage emergency and adopted mandatory water use restrictions. It's time for each of us to reduce water usage and conserve as much as possible. Book Passage has compiled a list of the best kids books to help explain droughts to your young reader.

PICTURE BOOKS

We Are Water Protectors

By Carole Lindstrom

When a black snake threatens to destroy the Earth
And poison her people’s water, one young water protector
Takes a stand to defend Earth’s most sacred resource.

Buy Now

All the Water in the World

By George Ella Lyon

Faucet
well
raincloud
sea …

from each of these
comes water.

But where does
Water go?

Buy Now

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

By William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

When fourteen-year-old William Kamkwamba's Malawi village was hit by a drought, everyone's crops began to fail. Without enough money for food, let alone school, William spent his days in the library . . . and figured out how to bring electricity to his village. Persevering against the odds, William built a functioning windmill out of junkyard scraps, and thus became the local hero who harnessed the wind.

Buy Now

Hey, Water!

By Antoinette Portis

Hey, water! I know you! You're all around.

Join a young girl as she explores her surroundings and sees that water is everywhere. But water doesn't always look the same, it doesn't always feel the same, and it shows up in lots of different shapes. Water can be a lake, it can be steam, it can be a tear, or it can even be a snowman.

Buy Now

Come On, Rain!

By Karen Hesse

"Come on, rain!" Tess pleads to the sky as listless vines and parched plants droop in the endless heat. Up and down the block, cats pant while heat wavers off tar patches in the broiling alleyway. More than anything, Tess hopes for rain. And when it comes, she and her friends are ready for a surprising joyous celebration....Through exquisite language and acute observation, Newbery medalist Karen Hesse recreates the glorious experience of a quenching rainstorm on a sweltering summer day. Jon J Muth's masterful and lyrical watercolors perfectly reflect the spirit of the text.

Buy Now

The Water Hole

By Graeme Base

In the tradition of his best-selling alphabet book, Animalia, author and illustrator Graeme Base takes young readers on an exhilarating journey of discovery with an ingenious fusion of counting book, puzzle book, storybook, and art book. From the plains of Africa and the jungles of the Amazon to the woodlands of North America and the deserts of outback Australia, the animals come together to drink from the water hole. But their water supply is diminishing. What's going on?

Buy Now

NON-FICTION

A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder

By Walter Wick

The most spectacular photographs ever created on the subject of water appear in this unique science book by Walter Wick. The camera stops the action and magnifies it so that all the amazing states of water can be observed — water as ice, rainbow, steam, frost, dew. Readers can examine a drop of water as it falls from a faucet, see a drop of water as it splashes on a hard surface, count the points of an actual snowflake, and contemplate how drops of water form clouds.

Buy Now

National Geographic Readers: Water

Water is all around us; we drink it every day. In this level 3 reader, kids will learn about the water cycle, discovering how rain and snow flow into our lakes, rivers, and oceans, and later evaporate into the sky again. Vivid photography and accessible text make this book an ideal introduction to the science of water.

Buy Now

Droughts (Disaster Zone)

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Buy Now

CHAPTER BOOKS (Ages 8-12):

Out of the Dust

By Karen Hesse

Acclaimed author Karen Hesse's Newbery Medal-winning novel-in-verse explores the life of fourteen-year-old Billie Jo growing up in the dust bowls of Oklahoma.

Buy Now

Where the Watermelons Grow

By Cindy Baldwin

When twelve-year-old Della Kelly finds her mother furiously digging black seeds from a watermelon in the middle of the night and talking to people who aren't there, Della worries that it’s happening again—that the sickness that put her mama in the hospital four years ago is back. That her mama is going to be hospitalized for months like she was last time.

Buy Now

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Young Readers Edition

By William Kamkwamba, Bryan Mealer

Now a Netflix film starring and directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor, this is a gripping memoir of survival and perseverance about the heroic young inventor who brought electricity to his Malawian village.

Buy Now

YOUNG ADULT

Dry

By Neal Shusterman, Jarrod Shusterman

The drought—or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it—has been going on for a while now. Everyone’s lives have become an endless list of don’ts: don’t water the lawn, don’t fill up your pool, don’t take long showers.

Until the taps run dry.

Suddenly, Alyssa’s quiet suburban street spirals into a warzone of desperation; neighbors and families turned against each other on the hunt for water. And when her parents don’t return and her life—and the life of her brother—is threatened, Alyssa has to make impossible choices if she’s going to survive.

Buy Now