Every Last Drop: Bringing Clean Water Home

Footprints

by Michelle Mulder

In the developed world, if you want a drink of water you just turn on a tap or open a bottle. But for millions of families worldwide, finding clean water is a daily challenge, and kids are often the ones responsible for carrying water to their homes. Every Last Drop looks at why the world's water resources are at risk and how communities around the world are finding innovative ways to quench their thirst and water their crops. Maybe you're not ready to drink fog, as they do in Chile, or use water made from treated sewage, but you can get a low-flush toilet, plant a tree, protect a wetland or just take shorter showers. Every last drop counts!

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Environment, Childrens, Conservation, Nature, Canada

48 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Michelle Mulder is a Canadian children's author. She loves writing about kids who seize life's opportunities, and she tries to do the same in her own life. Some of her favourite adventures have included helping to dig a water pipeline in the Dominican Republic, backpacking through Argentina with her husband, and riding a hot air balloon through a Cappadocian valley in Turkey. She lives with her husband in Victoria, BC.

Reviews

[Children's Literature Centre at FSU · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every Last Drop: Bringing Clean Water Home informs readers about how access to clean water is limited in many different parts of the world. The book describes how and why much of our fresh water is contaminated. The book also details the many clever ways that different cultures collect fresh water and treat contaminatedwater. Children are instructed about the many ways they can make a difference: using less water, planting trees etc. Every Last Drop is highly informative text about a very important topic that, on top of being packed with facts, remains interesting throughout. By offering ways that children can make a difference, this book has great potential for interactivity.
Review written by Matthew Merson

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked learning about the different ways people collect drinking water around the world and the ways I could save on water at home (planting native plants and collecting rain water). But I felt the book mostly glossed over how a lot of fresh water is wasted by industrial farmers and corporations. It did talk about it, but much of the book suggested it's individual families who are responsible for most of the waste.

It's a good book for kids (late elementary to middle school (as a resource on living environmentally friendly) and I would recommend it as a beginner learning source.

[Karen davisstone · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Every Last Drop, Bringing Clean Water Home” is a book I fell in love with. The pictures are bright and show children and grownups from all over the world drinking, washing and dealing with everything water. I would use this book in science class when we study the water cycle and also when we discuss conservation and ways of keeping our water clean. I would start with a discussion about water and bring in the students prior knowledge. I work in a school that has a very high ESL and Newcomer population and quite often we get many different points of view because of this. A number of students I have had have come here from refugee camps and from war torn areas, so their experience with water is tremendously different from those of us in the United States. We can learn so much from listening to each other and I feel this would be a great introduction. We would move through this book slowly, I think it could be really chunked up and done over a two or three week time frame. We could read a chapter, discuss, research and either create reports, or charts to display the information that we acquire. In the end students would have not only the idea of the water cycle, but would also understand what has contaminated water sources around the world and what different countries are doing to solve this problem. I chose this book because it’s information is the most recent (2014) and also because of the high quality of the book itself.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of us don't think about the journey our water has taken to reach our water faucets or toilets. This book, filled with colorful photographs and stories, provides some of the history behind wells, reservoirs, and waste water treatment plants as well as making clear the laborious process of hauling water home every day. In addition to receiving information about how water that is not clean can cause diseases and even death, readers will learn about young activists who are teaching their communities different ways to use water more wisely. There are water-related examples from across the globe, including one idea to haul icebergs to Saudi Arabia as water sources and another involving catching and using fog for drinking water in Guatemala. The text is lively, engaging, and inspiring, and the author's passion for her topic shines through in just about every line. Even the titles of the chapters are fun--"Slurp It Up, Buttercup," and "Dinosaur Drinks," for instance. This is an excellent, fact-filled addition to a unit on sustainability or one on natural resources. The inclusion of the abbreviated story of Ryan Hreljac, a Canadian boy whose foundation has built over 740 wells, adds to the book's kid-friendly examples and reminds readers that attending school and studying are not options for many children who must spend their days toting water.

[Loraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

SUMMARY: In the developed world, if you want a drink of water you just turn on a tap or open a bottle. But for millions of families worldwide, finding clean water is a daily challenge, and kids are often the ones responsible for carrying water to their homes. Every Last Drop looks at why the world’s water resources are at risk and how communities around the world are finding innovative ways to quench their thirst and water their crops. Maybe you’re not ready to drink fog, as they do in Chile, or use water made from treated sewage, but you can get a low-flush toilet, plant a tree, protect a wetland or just take shorter showers. Every last drop counts!

REVIEW: This was an incredibly interesting book that covered a variety of ways that people have gotten clean water throughout history to modern times. It was written in the context of how children were affected by the need for clean water and for ways they can help in providing their families with clean water especially in third-world countries. This would be an excellent book for upper elementary students providing lots of information yet allowing them to do further research on their own. It would especially appeal to boys as it contains enough "gross" facts to keep their attention.

[Sunday · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written for the intended audience (4th-7th grade). Clear central ideas that are well developed. I read this in one sitting - not because it was gripping, but because it was intensely interesting and cohesive-there was a flow from idea to idea that kept me interested and intrigued. The author writes in the first person as though she is having a conversation with "you"--this might be appealing to this age group of readers.

It would have been helpful to have a few more supportive graphics. There are plenty of pictures that reveal the diversity of those who need water and the diversity of methods we use to trap and clean water. A diagram of described concepts like "a mini-wetland in the corner of your kitchen" (p. 28) would have been helpful to the reader in visualizing this important concept. Not a deal breaker, though.

This could be used in literature circles for some conversation around critical questions. You might even be able to read aloud sections to draw students' interest--the writing flows that well and is sprinkled with enough "gross" facts to draw students' interest, but not so many that the reader loses track of the central ideas.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A person can live for weeks without food, but only a few days without water. The human brain is 75% water. Blood has even more water in it, and even our bones are 20% water. No wonder we need to drink so often!

97% of Earth's water is in our oceans (salt water = undrinkable) and most of what is left is trapped in glaciers and ice caps. Of all the water on the planet, only 1% is fresh water that plants and animals, like us can drink. Imagine all the water of the world in a four-liter (one-gallon) bucket. Only a tablespoonful would be drinkable fresh water.

43% of the world's population - that's almost 3 billion people - do not have water taps in their houses or even nearby! In many countries women and children walk up to 6 hours every single day, looking for a lake, stream, river, water hole, tap or well. They bring water home in any kind of container they can carry.

Read this book to learn creative ways of providing water to people around the world and how to conserve water.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those who, through choice, go vacation camping or on longer adventures without running water, steps are taken as preparation in advance. There is usually the sure knowledge of being able to return to a facility or home to experience the luxury of easily accessible water. If you have ever had to live without indoor plumbing or even a water pump, you understand it is true comfort.

Nothing could have prepared me for the wealth of information presented in Every Last Drop: Bringing Clean Water Home (Orca Book Publishers, April 1, 2014) written by Michelle Mulder. It's currently one of the titles listed for the Silver Birch 2015 Nonfiction Award given by the Ontario Library Association's Libraries Advance Ontario Project. Every single drop of water has value.


My full recommendation: http://librariansquest.blogspot.com/2...

[Margie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very respectable read for children in mid and upper elementary grades, this book though short, covers alot of ground. It includes a table of contents, index and list of resources which would help with any research that might need to be done. The book is an interesting mix of water situations in countries around the world but also introduces various ideas to help make more water available. Thought provoking ideas about water conservation are also presented which hopefully will make readers in our own country more aware of our own water usage.

[Sarah Threlkeld · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is packed with interesting information about how water has been accessed and used for thousands of year's. The language is kid-friendly and engaging, the pictures represent many different cultures and locations around the world, and the author provides simple suggestions on how kids can have a positive affect on water usage. This would make an excellent classroom resource for intermediate grades and middle school.

[Holly Mueller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so glad I was introduced to this book by reading Alyson Beecher's "Best Of" post for nonfiction picture books. I loved Michelle Mulder's conversational and friendly tone as she teaches all about the history of water, how various cultures get water, the struggle for water in various places of the world, and the calling us to action to conserve water and help others' get water. It's PERFECT for our #ReadWalkWater/Social Responsibility unit! Great photos, too.

[Taryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Orca Footprint series is fascinating. This book was told with lots of pictures, personal stories, interesting captions that I kept sharing with my co-workers and family, and just overall made me more interested and knowledgeable about the history and current status of water usage. The bicycle book and the houses around the world book in the same series is just as interesting.

[Pam Page · Rating 5 out of 5]

Children and adults can learn a lot from this book about how water is used, where it comes from and some of the history of water usage. This would make a great non-fiction read aloud in the classroom as it is written in such an interesting manner with facts that will be new to many readers!

[Joellen Mccarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this fact filled book by clean water advocate, Mulder. A very engaging NF text for all ages. Great for older readers to pair with a Long Walk to Water and or Ryan's Well. Also fabulous mentor text for writing that has creative chapter titles and subtitles with tons of voice.

[Ampersand Inc. · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much fascinating information, in such a fun, chatty book!

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging, informative mix of history, technology, environmental and conservation issues, and global initiatives, all appealingly presented.

[Sharlynn Boersma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book that provides a lot of information about how water is used and obtained around the world. It depicts many cultural differences about how water is used around the world.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and very readable. Fabulous photographs and illustrations. This book is very informative and important to kids as well as adults.

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Children's book on the importance of clean water and its availability across the world. It's picture book sized, but has more content than a picture book.

[Stacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

felt the content was important info, but got sleepy amidst every chapter.

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful guide for children doing book reports or just interested in where water comes from.