cover image Heather Fell in the Water

Heather Fell in the Water

Doug MacLeod, illus. by Craig Smith. Allen & Unwin (IPG/Trafalgar Square, dist.), $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-74237-648-6

MacLeod and Smith use slapstick humor to tackle a common childhood fear. Heather isn’t scared of the water, exactly, but she’s developed a strong dislike of it. That’s because whenever she’s near water, she gets soaked. “One day her parents took her to visit a farm,” MacLeod writes. “Heather fell in the water” (headfirst into a trough, no less). Adding insult to injury, Heather’s parents make her wear water wings all the time—a good thing, since she manages to get drenched at an art gallery and Japanese tea house, too. Eventually, Heather comes to a logical conclusion: “The water hates me.” But with some help from her parents, who gradually acclimate Heather to the water, she realizes that “the water didn’t hate her. It loved her. That was why it kept making her fall in.” In addition to creating some very funny pratfalls for poor Heather, Smith’s paintings—watercolors, naturally—play up the idea of water as friend, not foe. When Heather has her big awakening, a squiggly, aqueous face smiles at her from the depths of her local swimming pool. Ages 3–5. (May)