Making a Splash! Cannonball by Sacha Cotter

I'm always dreaming of pulling off that perfect cannonball. A booming one! A slapping one. A splashing, dripping, soaring one! Do an amazing cannonball around here and you will be something, all right. SomeONE!

The competition is considerable! The Kneelock! The Coffin Drop! The Manu! They're all a hard act to follow. His Nana tries to build up his confidence, but then one attempt from the sky-high platform leaves him clinging to the board, providing a good laugh for all the big guys below.

Sometimes I think I'm just not cut out for cannonballs!

Everybody thinks they know the secret. Weigh more. Get taller. Get bigger swim trunks! OR JUST...

"JUMP ALREADY!"

But Nana has the best advice.

"Do it your way!"

So with the breeze in his hair, he dances through the air, and.... ... with a colossal, spectacular, super SPLASH, he lands a memorable cannonball that soaks everyone thoroughly. YAY! It's mission accomplished in Sacha Cotter's how-to story, Cannonball (Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky, 2020). Sacha Cotter's story of making the scene with a big splash is set in New Zealand, giving a bit of South Pacific color and feel to a story of achieving the milestone of that big jump that is a universal childhood experience. Populated with plenty of voluble advisors and nay-saying critics, Cotter's upbeat narration is punctuated with jolly rhymes and enlightened by a supportive grandmother to add to this joyful rite of passage. Pair this one with Gaia Cornwall's delightful Jabari Jumps (read review here), another story of making that leap of faith into the rest of your life.