Review by Booklist Review
A community swimming pool provides the setting for this upbeat picture book featuring a girl who loves the water. Accompanied by her mother and little brother, who sit at the water's edge, the girl plunges in, swimming downward while bubbles rise up around her, as irrepressible as her pleasure in exploring this wondrous space. She looks so at home, despite the fact that activities as common as sitting, talking, and standing become strange underwater: "You under-sit. / You under-talk. / You under-smile. / You somersault. / You under-stand. / You under-handstand. / You. / You understand." Thunder rumbles, emptying the pool until the storm passes. Then the girl plunges back in, rescuing her brother's rubber duckie and playing with friends. Creating the mood as well as the story's structure, Davies' cascading lines of verse text read aloud beautifully, rewarding listeners with wordplay. Suggesting rather than defining the story, the text leaves space for Sánchez's effervescent illustrations to work their magic. The imaginative underwater scenes are particularly fine. This high-spirited picture book, an excellent counterbalance to the many that deal with young children's fears of deep water, celebrates the joy that many kids find in swimming and water play. A mesmerizing book that conjures up a summer day.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A remarkable fusion of text and images captures the effervescent freedom of swimming underwater: "PLUNGE!/ Under/ under/ under/ Bubbles... up!" A black-haired, light-skinned young swimmer in bright orange goggles and a striped bathing suit is at the pool with Mom and golden-haired "young one"; this is the older child's chance to show what they can do. The movement of rising air bubbles serves as metaphor for the youngster's exuberance: "mouth bubbles/ nose bubbles/ ear bubbles/ rear bubbles... up they rise/ And you burst through! Surface like a porpoise!" Liveliness characterizes the child's play in the water, and Davies (Panda Pants) plays with words, too: "You under-sit. You under-talk. You under-smile. You under-walk." Sánchez's (Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away) inspired typography amps up the spreads; verses float in spreads of cool blue water and streams of bubbles, their movements mimicking the swimmer's. Even a sudden thunderstorm and the clearing of the pool can't dampen the story's spirits. Later, as the child surfaces triumphantly with "young one"'s yellow duck, Davies affirms both swimmer and reader--"You! You... the superhero!...Wonderful you. You are a wonder"--in this fully immersive reading experience. Ages 4--8. (May)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2--A community pool is a place of wonder--mouth, nose, or ear bubbles all rise through water, filled with light. A small pink-skinned girl gives readers the tour, to follow the bubbles up until you break the surface, and dive back in. All in the pool celebrate life under water. One can under-sit, under-talk, under-stand, or complete an under-handstand. Similes communicate the motion amid bubbles "light as butterflies," as the girl urges her body up to "surface like a porpoise" and "shoot like a rocket ship." Families of all races play in the water as text and word placement highlight movement in digital paintings with swirls of dark and light-filtered color. Descriptive verse text with a scribble of clouds capture a bubble-filled watery world. It's easy for swimmers to dream and imagine the pool filled with saltwater depths of treasure before an ominous rumble announces a thunderstorm. The interruption provides both a visual downpour and an alliterative storm of words, and soon, everyone is back in the water. VERDICT A recommended first purchase for all libraries, this title will interest readers who love the world underwater, or those who recognize the freedom and confidence borne of immersive play.--Mary Elam, Learning Media Services, Plano I.S.D., TX
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Review by Horn Book Review
Davies's playful rhyming text depicts a child's eventful afternoon at a pool brimming with swimmers of all ages, sizes, and skin tones. Readers are quickly immersed in the young swimmer's exploration of the under: "You under-sit. / You under-talk. / You under-smile. / You under-walk." The irregular, blocky text shape-shifts alongside the splashes and somersaults on each page. A sudden afternoon thunderstorm rolls in, "so loud it makes your eardrums ring / so loud it makes the young one cling." Swimmers huddle undercover, wrapped in towels, until the all-clear sounds and they jump back into action. A young child's rubber ducky floats off into the deep end, but a quick rescue leads to celebration and a towel break at pool's edge -- that is, until the water beckons to the child once again. Sanchez's (Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away, rev. 9/20) textured mixed-media illustrations brilliantly capture the sensations of a pool excursion, from the reflective blues of tiles wavering beneath the water line to the fizzy bubbles from cannonball jumps. Every turquoise-covered page evokes the sound of splashes, excited squeals, and squeaky inflatables familiar to frequent swimmers. An ebullient ode to a simple summertime joy that will surely encourage both novice and adventurous swimmers to make a splash of their own. Grace McKinney September/October 2021 p.62(c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A swimming pool and a young swimmer create watery magic together. Davies' lighthearted, lively bit of poetry describes the singular joy of an afternoon at the neighborhood pool in this celebration of underwater swimming and splashing. "PLUNGE! / under / under / under," reads the text as a child with black hair and light brown skin and a colorfully striped one-piece bathing suit dives and floats and soars underwater. "Bubbles…UP!" A younger, lighter-skinned little person wearing floaties and orange swim trunks stays by the poolside with an adult while a crowd of children with many different hair types and colors of skin splashes and shouts in the pool. Sánchez's illustrations capture the way sunlight ripples through water over blue-patterned tiles and convey the blissful freedom of weightlessness, diving to the bottom of an imaginary ocean world and rocketing to the top amid bubbles. A brief thundershower clears the pool, and everyone huddles near the snack bar--but when the all-clear sounds, it's back to the water. There's a dramatic rescue of a rubber duck: "You are fast…/ --aqueous-- / A watery dolphin, all flash and fin." There's cuddling--for a moment--in a towel after, and then back to the water, where the smaller child joins in the fun at last. The exuberant sense of being purely in the moment is delightful. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 19% of actual size.) Superbly splashy, immersive, and effervescent. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
