Published: 2021
Author / Illustrator: Emily Kate Moon
Genre: Children’s Picture Book / Narrative Non-Fiction
Audience: Pre-K–Grade 3
Number of Stars: ★★★★☆ (4/5)
Goodreads Link: Drop: An Adventure through the Water Cycle
Themes: The Water Cycle, Earth History, Conservation, Environmental Science.
Publisher’s Summary
A water ride like you’ve never experienced before, featuring the cutest drop of water in all of precipitation.
Meet Drop. She’s water! And she’s seen a thing or two–even dinosaurs. Everywhere Drop flows–and she flows everywhere –she makes life on Earth possible, and has a great time doing it. Have you ever plummeted from a rain cloud? Or taken a thousand-year nap in a glacier? Drop has! She’ll tell you all about it. With delightful panache and a steady stream of funny one-liners, Drop takes readers on an adventure through the water cycle and beyond. Filled with irresistible artwork, funny asides, and a steady sprinkle of kid-enticing facts, Drop is the story about water everyone has been thirsting for.
Full Review
This book does an amazing job of explaining the water cycle! It is absolutely perfect for a primary science lesson at the elementary level. The text is very easy to read and simple to follow. The way the author personifies “Drop” to make her feel like a living, breathing, “real-life” character is awesome—it makes it incredibly easy for young kids to stay engaged and follow her journey across the globe. The illustrations are super cute too! I recommend this book 100%. It would be a wonderful addition to a classroom library, a school media center, or even just a home bookshelf for families with small children. The vibrant artwork keeps the subject matter from feeling dry or boring. Not only will kiddos get to read something they find genuinely fun and silly, but they will also be learning a ton of scientific facts along the way, which is the ultimate goal of narrative non-fiction.
🌦️ The Science of Drop’s Journey
Emily Kate Moon uses Drop’s adventures to illustrate the main phases of the hydrologic cycle, making abstract scientific terms accessible to young minds.
- Evaporation & Transpiration: Drop warms up and travels into the sky. The book demonstrates how water shifts from liquid to vapor, invisible but full of energy.
- Condensation: Up in the atmosphere, Drop cools down and bunches up with her friends to form clouds.
- Precipitation: When the clouds get too heavy, Drop gets to “plummet from a rain cloud” as rain, snow, or sleet.
- Collection & Runoff: Drop lands back on Earth, flowing into oceans, traveling through groundwater, or taking a “thousand-year nap” locked safely inside a glacier.
🎒 Classroom & Curricular Connections
- Earth Science (The Hydrologic Cycle):
- Activity Idea: “Water Cycle in a Baggie.” After reading, have students draw a cloud, sun, and ocean on a plastic Ziploc bag with permanent markers. Fill the bag with a small amount of water (dyed blue) and tape it to a sunny window. Students can watch real-world evaporation, condensation, and precipitation happen over the week, tracking Drop’s movements.
- History & Deep Time (Conservation & Dinosaurs):
- Activity Idea: The book mentions that Drop has “seen dinosaurs.” Explain to students that Earth has the exact same water now as it did millions of years ago. Have students draw a comic strip of Drop’s past adventures—drinking with a T-Rex, flowing down an ancient river, or being frozen during the Ice Age.
- ELA & Personification (Creative Writing):
- Activity Idea: “A Day in the Life of a Drop.” Have students use personification to write a short story from the perspective of a water drop. Where did they land? Did they get splashed out of a puddle? Did they get swallowed by a dog? Encourage them to include at least two official water cycle terms in their creative writing.
- Art & Geography (Glacier vs. Ocean Mapping):
- Activity Idea: Create a classroom map showing all the different places Drop can live. Use cotton balls for glaciers/clouds, blue tissue paper for rivers/oceans, and brown construction paper for underground aquifers.
