Friday, April 22, 2011

The Deep End by Ursula Dubosarsky

Learning to swim is an important skill for all children and as with most activities for children, swimming lessons are now very structured. Becky has been to these lessons for a long time and she has moved from tadpoles to frogs and today she will become a platypus! Moving up to the platypus group means venturing up to the deep end of the pool. “She looked down to the end of the big pool, and read the words, painted in black on the wall : DEEP END. It was so far away! And the water was so dark and waving. Who knew what was lurking down there?”
Becky does not know it yet but help is at hand. Her swimsuit has a picture of a girl riding a seahorse printed on it. Becky also has a very lively imagination and these two things combine to help her cope with her first lesson in the deep end.

This book is from the Aussie Nibbles series. My favourite Nibbles are Poor Fish, My amazing Poo plant, First Friend, The Princess who hated it, Winning the world cup and Topsy and Turvy. We have over 60 Nibble titles in our school library.

The Deep End is short listed for the CBCA Early Childhood Book of the Year Awards. I am not sure that it will be a winner but I do think the youngest children will enjoy this simple little story and they are certain to relate to Abby and her swimming lesson terrors. It will also be interesting to compare this with other books in this category which are Picture Books.

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