The Ways of Water: Blue Floats Away by Travis Jonker

LITTLE BLUE LIVED NEAR THE NORTH POLE WITH HIS PARENTS.

THEY WERE VERY CLOSE.

But life for a floating iceberg has its ups and downs along with the temperature.

And one day, with a CRACK! Little Blue finds himself separated from his parents and floating away in the cold blue sea.

"I'LL BE BACK SOON," HE CALLED, BUT HE WASN'T SO SURE!

Little Blue wasn't quite alone for long. Soon he sees exciting new things--dorsal fins cutting through the icy water. And after some time, he sees more new things, beautiful things--swift sailboats that sped past him. At first he doesn't notice the the ocean is growing warmer and he is beginning to shrink, faster and faster.

SOMETHING UNPLANNED BEGAN TO HAPPEN.

Little Blue melts into the big blue ocean. But then, something new began to happen. He's rising up and up into the sky as tiny droplets which meet and meld together, and Little Blue becomes a cloud, floating northward among some new friends, the seabirds and the sailboats who teach him about the directions, north, south, east, and west. The air begins to grow colder and colder, and snowflakes drop from him into the icy sea. And then....

LITTLE BLUE SEES---HIS PARENTS!

Savvy second graders will recognize that Travis Jonker's Blue Floats Away (Abrams, 2021) is the story based that favorite anchor of primary grade science, the mighty Water Cycle, as seen in the northern hemisphere--a concept that rules much of physical science and earth science. In this beguiling story of a charming little iceberg from his calving from his parental iceberg near the North Pole through the physical process through all of earth's water goes, primary grade students get the whole story. Artist Grant Snider's cute little iceberg and his journey from ice to condensation and precipitation, from solid to liquid to gas and back again, sweetly reinforces the science lesson at the root of Travis Jonker's story. Author Jonker also appends an author's note, uniting the changes in state involved in the water cycle and its relationship of rapidly melting ice to with climate change and how young students can become part of the solution.

As School Library Journal adds, "There are other books about the water cycle out there but the journey of the individual character and his wonder at the voyage brings an empathetic element that will engage young readers.

Wandering the Water Cycle: Ice Boy by David Ezra Stein

What does an ice cube worry about most?

Ice Boy has a cozy homelife with his parents and siblings in the freezer. Everyone has his or her own cubicle, however compact, but still he wonders what's next.

Mom and Dad say someday each of them will be "chosen," serving to cool a frosty drink, or if they are special enough, to chill a medicinal ice bag. But an epicurean ending, clinking in an iced cocktail, or an altruistic outcome, cooling a cold compress, don't really fire Ice Boy's imagination.

He decides waiting to be "taken" is not cool.

Ice Boy wanted more.

Even though his parents said "Never go outside" and the doctor always said, "Stay out of the sun," Ice Boy went outside.

Ice Boy went to the beach. He rolled right up to the edge of the water and rolled right in.

He feels different already!

"My edges are beginning to blur! " He was ... becoming...Water Boy! "Best day ever!"

Water boy rides the waves up onto the beach and soaks a beach towel. It's hot and he begins to steam! And then he begins to feel light-headed as he starts to rise up and up above the beach.

He was ... becoming.. Vapor Boy!

But then things begin to happen fast. He feels denser and finds himself part of a rapidly forming thunderhead. He rises higher and higher, as below him lightning flashes and thunder rolls. It's freezing up there, and he finds himself quite icy. He's Ice Boy once more, but this time he's round and heavy. And then he's dropping, dropping, down, down... until...

PLINK!

Clink! "Ice Boy! Is that YOU?" said his father. "You're a sight for sore ICE!"

Ice Boy finds himself floating in a fizzy drink with his family, and he has just begun to tell them all about his journey, when the person tosses his left-over ice out on the grassy lawn. His parents are afraid.

"Where will we go?" they lament.

"Let's find out!" said Ice Boy.

David Ezra Stein's little trip through changes in physical states, Ice Boy (Candlewick Press, 2018) is a wry look at the the water cycle, a comic-strip version of that favorite primary science topic that kids will find intriguing. Told in quip-filled speech balloons, Stein's watery stick figures are about as expressive as ice cubes can be, with some punny wordplay that adds to the fun of the whole science lesson, not to mention a slyly comic parable of life's changes. Kirkus Reviews coolly sums it all up: "An allegory for breaking away from the mold, the story doubles as a light lesson on the water cycle."