A girl in India discovers an ancient step well in this companion book to the creators’ much-loved Out of the Way! Out of the Way!
When a girl discovers a slab of stone on a weedy patch of land, she calls to her friends, “Look! Look!” The children clear away the weeds and garbage and find more stones. They call their families to come and see and begin to dig around the stones. Word travels to villages nearby, and more and more people join in, until the digging reveals steps that lead down to an ancient well. At the bottom, there’s even a little water! When the rains come, they cause an underground spring to flow once again, filling the ancient well with fresh, clean water and greening the surrounding fields.
Lyrical writing and lively, richly colored art come together once again in this compelling story that embraces community, nature and the passage of time. Includes an author’s note about ancient step wells and their potential to help handle floods and provide water.
Key Text Features
illustrations
author’s note
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.6
With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.7
With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.3
Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.
A girl in India discovers an ancient step well in this companion book to the creators’ much-loved Out of the Way! Out of the Way!
When a girl discovers a slab of stone on a weedy patch of land, she calls to her friends, “Look! Look!” The children clear away the weeds and garbage and find more stones. They call their families to come and see and begin to dig around the stones. Word travels to villages nearby, and more and more people join in, until the digging reveals steps that lead down to an ancient well. At the bottom, there’s even a little water! When the rains come, they cause an underground spring to flow once again, filling the ancient well with fresh, clean water and greening the surrounding fields.
Lyrical writing and lively, richly colored art come together once again in this compelling story that embraces community, nature and the passage of time. Includes an author’s note about ancient step wells and their potential to help handle floods and provide water.
Key Text Features
illustrations
author’s note
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.6
With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.7
With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.3
Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.
| Published By | Groundwood Books Ltd — Apr 2, 2024 |
| Specifications | 32 pages | 7.875 in x 11 in |
| Written By |
UMA KRISHNASWAMI was born in India and now lives in Victoria, British Columbia. Her other publications include Two at the Top, illustrated by Christopher Corr; Book Uncle and Me, illustrated by Julianna Swaney, winner of the ILA Social Justice Literature Award; and The Girl of the Wish Garden, illustrated by Nasrin Khosravi. She has been nominated twice for the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Uma is faculty emerita in the Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. |
| Illustrated by |
UMA KRISHNASWAMY divides her time between illustrating picture books and teaching art and design aesthetics to young adults. She has illustrated many books, including A Dollop of Ghee and a Pot of Wisdom by Chitra Soundar, Dancing on Walls by Shamim Padamsee and The Boastful Centipede and Other Creatures in Verse by Zai Whitaker. She enjoys mixing styles of art from all over the world, but her main inspiration comes from India’s rich arts and crafts tradition. She lives in Chennai, India. |
| Written By |
|
UMA KRISHNASWAMI was born in India and now lives in Victoria, British Columbia. Her other publications include Two at the Top, illustrated by Christopher Corr; Book Uncle and Me, illustrated by Julianna Swaney, winner of the ILA Social Justice Literature Award; and The Girl of the Wish Garden, illustrated by Nasrin Khosravi. She has been nominated twice for the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Uma is faculty emerita in the Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. |
| Illustrated by |
|
UMA KRISHNASWAMY divides her time between illustrating picture books and teaching art and design aesthetics to young adults. She has illustrated many books, including A Dollop of Ghee and a Pot of Wisdom by Chitra Soundar, Dancing on Walls by Shamim Padamsee and The Boastful Centipede and Other Creatures in Verse by Zai Whitaker. She enjoys mixing styles of art from all over the world, but her main inspiration comes from India’s rich arts and crafts tradition. She lives in Chennai, India. |
| Audience | ages 3 and up / grades 1 and up |
| Key Text Features | illustrations; author’s note |
| Common Core |
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.6
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.7 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.3 |
A gorgeous and inspiring imagining of a collective response to climate change. STARRED REVIEW
” —Kirkus