About Maadagindan
Water Bibliography
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Water Cycle
All the Water in the World / by George Ella Lyon and Katherine Tillotson. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2011. Ages 4 – 8.
Water is Water / by Miranda Paul and Jason Chin. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2015. Ages 4 – 9.
Agua, Agüita / by Jorge Tetl Argueta and Felipe Ugalde Alcántara. Translated by Gabriela Baeza Ventura. Houston, Texas: Piñata Books, an imprint of Arte Público Press, 2017. Ages 4 – 8.
Precipitation / by Frances Purslow. New York, NY: AV2, 2011. Ages 9 – 12.
Hey, Water! / by Antoinette Portis. New York: Neal Porter Books, Holiday House, 2018. Ages 4 – 8. Exploring Earth’s Water Cycle / by Emily Donovan. New York: PowerKids Press, 2019. Ages 8 – 12. I Am the Rain / by John Paterson. Nevada City, CA: Dawn Publications, 2018. Ages 3 – 8.
Properties of Water
Experiments with Water / by Chris Oxlade. Chicago, Ill. Heinemann Library, 2008. Ages 8 – 11.
The Magic School Bus Ups and Downs: A Book About Floating and Sinking / by Jane B. Mason and Nancy Stevenson. New York: Scholastic, 1997. Ages 4 – 8.
Things That Float and Things That Don’t / by David A. Adler and Anna Raff. New York: Holiday House, 2013. Ages 4 – 8.
I Get Wet / by Vicki Cobb and Julia Gorton. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. Ages 4 – 8.
Water as a Resource
One Well: The Story of Water on Earth / by Rochelle Strauss and Rosemary Woods. Toronto: Kids Can Press, 2007. Ages 8 – 12.
Our World of Water: Children and Water Around the World / by Beatrice Hollyer. New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Co., in association with Oxfam, 2009. Ages 4 – 10.
Splash! Water (Taking Care of Your Planet) / by Núria Jiménez, Empar Jiménez, and Rosa M. Curto. Barrons Juveniles, 2010. Ages 5 – 9.
Water: Our Precious Resource / by Roy A. Gallant. New York: Benchmark Books, Marshall Cavendish, 2003. Ages 10 – 12.
Water Pollution / by Melanie Ostopowich. New York: AV2 by Weigl, 2010. Ages 8 – 12.
The Water Princess / by Susan Verde and Peter H. Reynolds. New York, NY: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2016. Ages 5 – 8.
We Are Water Protectors / by Carole Lindstrom and Michaela Goade. New York, NY: Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing, 2020. Ages 3 – 6.
Explore Water! 25 Great Projects, Activities, Experiments / by Anita Yasuda and Bryan Stone. White River Junction, VT: Nomad Press, 2011. Ages 6-9.
Bodies of Water
Fresh Water / by Peter Ampt. Broomall, PA: Chelsea House Publishers, 2002. Ages 4 – 8.
Oceans, Lakes, and Rivers / by Melanie Ostopowich. New York, NY: Weigl Publishers, 2006. Ages 7 – 9.
Rivers, Lakes, Streams, and Ponds / by Richard Beatty. Chicago, Ill.: Raintree, 2011. Ages 11 – 14.
Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed the Seas / by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm. New York: Blue Sky Press, 2012. Ages 4 and up.
Far From Shore: Chronicles of an Open Ocean Voyage / by Sophie Webb. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. Ages 10 – 12.
Water as Art (and More)
Water Rolls, Water Rises (El Agua Rueda, El Agua Sube) / by Pat Mora, Adriana Domínguez, and Meilo So. New York: Children’s Book Press, an imprint of Lee & Low Books Inc., 2014. Ages 5 – 8.
Water Can Be / by Laura Purdie Salas and Violeta Dabija. Minneapolis: Millbrook Press, 2014. Ages 5 – 8.
Water Runs Through This Book / by Nancy Bo Flood. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 2015. Ages 8 – 12.
Lesson Plans and STEM Kits
Can Water Be Sticky ? A Story time About Properties of Water, Especially Adhesion and Cohesion / Wisconsin Water Library.
All the Water in the World: A Story time About Our Drinking Water Supply / Wisconsin Water Library.
Ride the Water Cy cle: A Story time About the Wonderful Water Cy cle / Wisconsin Water Library.
Does it Sink or Float? STEM Kit / by Anne Moser, Elizabeth White, and Kristen Rost. Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Water Library, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 2015, updated 2018.*
Once a Pond a Time STEM Kit / by Anne Moser, Elizabeth White, and Kristen Rost. Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Water Library, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 2016, updated 2018. *
*Through the links provided, you can both request a kit and download the corresponding storytime guide! Those affiliated with UW – Madison should request a kit through the UW Library Catalog.
Great Lakes Bibliography
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Informational Books
The Great Lakes / by Janet Piehl. Minneapolis: Lerner, 2010. Ages 6 – 9.
The Great Lakes / by Sharon Katz. New York : Benchmark Books, 1999. Ages 11 – 13.
Lake Erie / by Anne Ylvisaker. Mankato, Minn. Capstone Press, 2004. Ages 8 – 10.
Lake Huron / by Anne Ylvisaker. Mankato, Minn. Capstone Press, 2004. Ages 8 – 10.
Lake Michigan / by Anne Ylvisaker. Mankato, Minn. Capstone Press, 2004. Ages 8 – 10. Lake Ontario / by Anne Ylvisaker. Mankato, Minn. Capstone Press, 2004. Ages 8 – 10.
Lake Superior / by Anne Ylvisaker. Mankato, Minn. Capstone Press, 2004. Ages 8 – 10.
Great Ships on the Great Lakes: A Maritime History / by Catherine M. Green, Jefferson J. Gray, and Bobbie Malone. Madison, Wis.: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2013. Ages 7 – 12.
What’s on the Beach?: A Great Lakes Treasure Hunt / by Mary Blocksma. Bay City, MI: Beaver Island Arts, 2003. Ages 6 – 8.
People of the Great Lakes / by Ryan Nagelhout. New York : Gareth Stevens Publishing, 2015. Ages 8 – 11.
Plants and Animals of the Great Lakes / by Walter LaPlante. New York: Gareth Stevens Library, 2015. Ages 8 – 12.
True Stories
The Edmund Fitzgerald: Song of the Bell / by Kathy-Jo Wargin. Chelsea, Mich.: Sleeping Bear Press, 2003. Ages 5 – 8.
The Christmas Tree Ship: The Story of Captain Santa / by Rochelle M. Pennington. Woodruff, Wis.: Guest Cottage/Amherst Press, 2002.
Miss Colfax’s Light / by Aimée Bissonette. Ann Arbor, MI: Sleeping Bear Press, 2016. Ages 6 – 9.
Lost & Found: Legendary Lake Michigan Shipwrecks / by V. O. VanHeest. Holland, MI: In-Depth Editions, 2012. For YA readers.
Shipwrecks and Lost Treasures, Great Lakes: Legends and Lore, Pirates and More! / by Michael J. Varhola. Guilford, Conn.: Globe Pequot, 2008. For YA readers.
Shipwrecks, Monsters, and Mysteries of the Great Lakes / by Ed Butts. Tundra Books: Original edition, 2011. Ages 9 – 12.
The Edmund Fitzgerald: Lost With All Hands: A True Story for Young Readers / by Robert Hertel. River Road Pubns, 1998. Ages 9 – 12.
29 Missing: The True and Tragic Story of the Disappearance of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald / by Andrew Kantar. Michigan State University Press, 1998. Ages 12 – 17.
The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald: The Loss of the Largest Ship on the Great Lakes / by Charles River Editors. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014. For YA readers.
The Gulls of the Edmund Fitzgerald / by Tres Seymour. Orchard Books; First Edition, 1996. Ages 4 – 8.
Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes: Tales of Courage — and Cowardice (Amazing Stories) / by Cheryl MacDonald. Amazing Stories, 2010. Ages 11 – 18.
Whaleback Ships Of The Great Lakes: McDougall Adventures / by Stan Bougie. Independently published, 2021. For YA Readers.
Fictional Stories
Sport: Ship Dog of the Great Lakes / by Pamela Cameron. Madison, WI: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2019. Ages 5 – 10.
A Field Guide to Mermaids of the Great Lakes / by Debbie Scheller. Deborah Scheller, 2017. Ages 10 – 12.
Driftwood: Stories Picked Up Along the Shore: Paintings and Companion Stories / by Howard Sivertson. Duluth, Minn.: Lake Superior Port Cities, 2008.
On Sand Island / by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. Ages 4 – 7.
Tallulah: Mermaid of the Great Lakes / by Denise Brennan-Nelson. Ann Arbor, MI: Sleeping Bear Press, 2015. Ages 6 – 9.
A Pocketful of Passage / by Loraine Campbell. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 2007.
Ages 8 – 12.
The Day the Great Lakes Drained Away / by Charles Ferguson Barker. Michigan: Mackinac Island Press, 2005. Ages 3 – 6.
Good Night Great Lakes / by Adam Gamble, Mark Jasper, and Ute Simon. New York: Good Night Books, 2019. Ages 0 – 3.
You can find the books in this guide, and many more, at your local library or at an independent bookstore near you. Please go first to an Indigenous-owned bookstore.
In the Midwest, consider Birchbark Books in St. Paul, Minnesota, or Black Bears and Blueberries Publishing. To order publications from the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, visit their store.
We are also excited to highlight Indigenous-owned publishing houses!
Black Bears and Blueberries Publishing – Black Bears and Blueberries Publishing is a Native-owned company that publishes fiction and non-fiction paperback books and ebooks, many with reading levels K-6, on Native topics serving a regional audience, including the Dakotas, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. We hope to keep our focus small, publishing several titles a year.
Please reach out to be included on our list!
To learn more about Indigenous children’s books, we recommend four resources:
The Broken Flute, an essential reference
Earth Partnership: Indigenous Arts and Sciences Selected Bibliography for American Indian Studies
For information about Indigenous children’s books and many more, consult the incredible resource from UW-Madison, the Cooperative Children’s Book Center.
Our Partners
Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC)
The GLIFWC is an intertribal agency composed of eleven Ojibwe tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. GLIFWC’s purpose is to assist its member tribes in exercising their reservation treaty rights to hunt, fish, and gather in the territories ceded in the 1836, 1837, 1842, and 1854 Treaties.
Wisconsin Sea Grant
Wisconsin Sea Grant is a statewide program of basic and applied research, education, outreach and technology transfer dedicated to the stewardship and sustainable use of the nation’s Great Lakes and ocean resources. It is part of a national network of 34 university-based programs.
Our Honored Guests
We are forever grateful for the honored guests that join us to lead our conversations each month. They have generously gifted us stories and wisdom, and we will respect these gifts in our work with young learners.
Our Contributors
Morgan Coleman is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-River Falls with a bachelor’s degree in English. She is now pursuing a graduate degree at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Maya Reinfeldt was a library assistant and community engaged intern from 2021-2022. She is now Badger Talks Coordinator at UW Madison. She graduated from UW-Madison with honors with a BA in International Studies and Russian Literature.
India-Bleu Niehoff is library assistant and community engaged intern in the library from 2023 to present. She is currently a graduate student at UW–Madison’s iSchool pursuing her masters in library and lnformation Studies.
Madelyn Anderson has been the community engaged education intern since 2024. They will graduate in May 2025 with a BA in environmental studies and BS in science communication.