Agua, Agüita / Water, Little Water

by Jorge Tetl Argueta

Illustrations by Felipe Ugalde Alcántara

• ISBN: 978-1-55885-854-1
• Publication Date: October 31, 2017
• Bind: Hardcover
• Pages: 32

This trilingual picture book written in lyrical verse traces the life 

cycle of water from the point of view of one droplet.

“My name is Water

but everyone calls me

Little Water.”

In this beautiful, poetic ode to the life-giving force of water, award-winning children’s book author Jorge Argueta describes—in English, Spanish and Nahuat—the life cycle of water from the perspective of one drop.

From its birth deep in Mother Earth, Little Water climbs to the surface, passing through roots and rocks, light and darkness. Finally, the tiny bead of water makes it to the top and rests,

“A sigh of morning dew

 on the tips of leaves

on spider webs

or on the petals

of flowers.”

The droplet becomes a river, a lake, an ocean, ultimately climbing to the sky and turning into a cloud. Then,

“Drop by drop

I return singing

to our Mother Earth.

I am Little Water.

I am life.”

With stunningly beautiful illustrations by Felipe Ugalde Alcántara that depict the mountains, rocks, vegetation and animals of the natural world, this poem about the importance of water reflects Argueta’s indigenous roots and his appreciation for nature. Containing the English and Spanish text on each page, the entire poem appears at the end in Nahuat, the language of Argueta’s Pipil-Nahua ancestors. This book is an excellent choice to encourage children to write their own poems about the natural world and to begin conversations about the interconnected web of life.

JORGE ARGUETA is a prize-winning poet and author of more than twenty children’s picture books, including A Movie in My Pillow / Una película en mi almohada (Children’s Book Press, 2001), Guacamole: Un poema para concinar / A Cooking Poem (Groundwood, 2016) and Somos como las nubes / We Are Like the Clouds (Groundwood Books, 2016), which won the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and was named to USBBY’s Outstanding International Book List, the ALA Notable Children’s Books and the Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices. He lives and works in San Francisco, California.

FELIPE UGALDE ALCÁNTARA was born in Mexico City in 1962. He studied Graphic Communication at the National School of Art in Mexico’s National University, where he later taught an illustration workshop. He has been an illustrator and designer for children’s books, textbooks, and educational games for fifteen years. He has taught illustration workshops for children and professionals, and has participated in several exhibitions in Mexico and abroad.