I Do Not Like Water

Every child loves water, right? Not Alf, the pale-skinned child narrator of this picture book: “Down with rain, lakes, rivers, seas, puddles, pools, oceans, streams, marshes, ponds, brooks, and creeks!” In freely stroked gouache and watercolor spreads, Alf encounters water pictured in dynamic sheets of color that make its messy wetness easy to feel. Alf stumbles into a pool and their whole leg gets wet. At a school outing on the river, their canoe capsizes, an event that soaks Alf and their sandwiches. Tadpole-gathering is also out, though Alf’s peers enjoy watching the tadpoles grow into frogs, which soon swim off into the river. First-person narration recalls the previous winter, when the water and the hills froze, and Alf experienced great pleasure: “We sledded over and/ over and over and over.” At last, Alf finds a conceit that makes it possible to be happy near the water without being in it; it’s a triumph, and they wear a quiet smile. Vividly relaying intense early experiences of pain and of pleasure, Lindström (The Bridge) portrays a child who is comfortable with their own feelings and resourceful enough to hold space for them. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. (May)