An evocative story of heritage, community, and caring for the Earth.
Kit, a young Black child, goes with their grandfather to dig wells for people in their community. Kit’s grandfather is “magic,” able to “dance with water” and sense it with his dowsing rod.
The water from the wells that Grandpa digs supply neighbors with water for drinking, cooking, washing, and watering. Clean water is getting harder to find, however, and Grandpa tells Kit about the people who want more and more from the Earth “without listening.” A grim full-page image of factories and hotels against a smoggy red sky underscores his words.
Kit seems sobered, and doesn’t want to go with Grandpa the next time he needs to dig a well. Grandpa tells Kit he needs their help, however, and shows them how to listen for the water. Kit does so, sensing a strong connection, and the water “runs rivers through the lines in their palms” as a group of ancestors watches them from a cloud above.
Author Gwendolyn Wallace’s words feel perfectly paced and often lyrical, while Tonya Engel’s illustrations capture both the everyday details of Kit’s community and the swirling, ineffable power of the water and Grandpa’s magic.
In an Author’s Note, Wallace explains the “complicated relationship” between Black people and water, and “the layered significance of water divining when practiced in African American communities.” And while Kit’s nonbinary identity is unremarked on in the story, Wallace says in the Note, “It was deeply important to me that the main character of this story be trans and nonbinary. In Latin, trans means ‘across’ or ‘beyond.’ This book is a rejection of transness as ‘unnatural,’ and instead is an embrace of transformation and fluidity through a story of water.” She hope the book calls readers to environmental stewardship and to learning from the Earth.
Powerful and personal, the book should offer many opportunities for discussion among young readers and their adults about family, community, intergenerational wisdom, and our connection to the natural world. Highly recommended.
