The curious, protean nature of water has fascinated people for ages, and Walter Wick--the photographer of Scholastic's highly acclaimed I Spy series--is no exception. Wick is a great admirer and collector of 100-year-old science books where, according to his afterword, "Even the simplest experiments appeared as if improbable or impossible things were happening. Intrigued, I recreated some of the experiments and photographed them with my camera. The results seemed magical, but not because of any photographic trick; it was only the forces of nature at work. It was from these explorations that the idea for this book emerged." As you're admiring the "crown" created by a water drop splashing into a pool, or how many water droplets can fit on the head of a pin (the smallest droplet on the pin contains more than three trillion water molecules), you'll learn about evaporation, condensation, snowflakes, how clouds form, and more amazing water tricks. Wick's other artfully composed photographs include a "wild wave" caused by a brown egg dropped in a water glass, soap bubbles with a "shimmering liquid skin," a snowflake at 60 times its actual size, and dew on a spider web. Like many old-fashioned science books, A Drop of Water ends with a list of simple experiments may lure the young reader into the world of scientific investigation. Unlike many old science books, this one also stands on its own as a beautiful, notable collection of photographs.
Gr. 3^-6, younger with adult help. Science books with beautiful full-color photographs are not uncommon, but often the pictures are gathered from many different sources. Consequently, the photos rarely illustrate the text with the unity, precision, and elegant simplicity found in this book about the nature of water. Photographer Wick, best known as the illustrator of the I Spy picture book series, tells readers in an author's note that he was inspired by his collection of late-nineteenth-century science books for children. Here, he uses simple techniques to show water properties such as surface tension, adhesion, capillary attraction, molecular motion, freezing, evaporation, and condensation. For instance, opening the discussion of water's elastic tension, six close-ups show how the shape of a water droplet changes as it forms on a faucet, releases from the faucet, meets air resistance, plunges toward a pool of water, breaks the surface tension of the water, and causes a splash. To show surface tension, Wick photographs soap bubbles of different shapes. Appended notes comment on the demonstrations in the book and suggest other observations and experiments children can make using simple equipment. A fine, eye-catching introduction to a well-focused topic. Carolyn Phelan
From Kirkus Reviews
Something as simple as a drop of water hardly seems the stuff of extraordinary science. Yet exceptional photography from Wick (with Jean Marzollo, the I Spy series) shows fundamental science experiments in a fresh light. In a note, Wick explains that many of the experiments he shows were swiped from science texts from the 1800s. Without trickery or sleight of hand, through the meticulous photographing of the transformations of water, Wick displays the dual thrills of science and photography. The experiments explore various subjects: bubbles, the surface tension of a drop of water, snowflakes, steam. Instructions include fascinating tips on how to catch a snowflake on a mirror, and how to find a rainbow in dew-laden spider webs. In these pages, the prosaic becomes wondrous as readers see the marvels of H2O. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-10) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
"Tell me, have you any idea where this drop has been?" This isn't--believe it or not--a scolding question for a child with one hand dunked in the gutter and the other in his mouth. It is part of the epigraph to Walter Wick's Drop of Water, a science picture book that follows "a drop of water on its travels...." The book's most interesting series documents a drop's journey, annoying to the ear but thrilling to the eye, from drippy faucet to sink's puddle.... From there, Mr. Wick ... abandons the idea of following one drop and gets down instead to more scientifically organized water concepts--surface tension, capillary attraction, diffusion, condensation, evaporation, refraction and the earth's water cycle. Like a good science teacher, he answers the questions that most people would never bother to ask. -- The New York Times Book Review, Sarah Boxer
From the Back Cover
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, stream, 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.
About the Author
Walter Wick is the photographer of the international bestselling I Spy series as well as the author and photographer of the acclaimed Can You See What I See? series. He lives with his wife, Linda, in Miami Beach, Florida.
