Countdown to Geography Awareness Week: 17 days! Today’s favorite resource from the Geography Awareness Week website is the Freshwater Book-list. The book-list covers a wide range of freshwater topics for all age levels. Here is a small sample of books from the list. If you don’t see something that interests you here, check out the full list!

1.    Russell the Mussel (Grades K-2)
Adele Conover, Dick Biggins, Richard Neves
2002. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Blacksburg, VA.
Russell the Mussel is a children’s storybook geared toward young children to enhance their knowledge and awareness of aquatic ecosystems and the plight of freshwater mussels and other organisms in rivers of the U.S. In the story, a little girl named Jill stumbles upon Russell and his friends. Russell teaches Jill about the history of the creek, and how contamination of the water threatens the lives of its inhabitants.

2.    Salamander Rain: A Lake and Pond Journal (Grades 3-5)
Kristin Joy Pratt-Serafini
2001, Reprinted 2004. Dawn Publications. Nevada City, CA
Take a closer look at your local lake, pond, or woodland pool. Right near your home is one of the most exciting, sensory-rich environments in the world! Salamander Rain is the journal and scrapbook of a young Planet Scout who kept notes for a year, shared the results with his troop, and eagerly took on a pond cleanup project. He didn’t mind the mud because his mind was captivated by the daily drama of turtles, crayfish, dragonflies and water skimmers.

3.    How We Crossed the West: The Adventures of Lewis & Clark (Grades 6-8)
Rosalyn Schanzer
2002. National Geographic Society. Washington, D.C.
The mission: to search for a river route across the western U.S. to the Pacific Ocean, mapping and charting this unknown territory for the U.S. Government.

4.    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Grades 9-12)
Mark Twain
1885. Charles L. Webster and Company. New York, NY
Mark Twain’s classic novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, tells the story of a teenaged misfit who finds himself floating on a raft down the Mississippi River with an escaping slave, Jim. In the course of their perilous journey, Huck and Jim meet adventure, danger, and a cast of characters who are sometimes menacing and often hilarious.

5.    Globalization of Water: Sharing the Planet’s Freshwater Resources (Grades 9-12)
Arjen Y. Hoekstra and Ashkok K. Chapagain
2008. Wiley-Blackwell. Malden, MA
This book examines future potential problems facing the world’s fresh water, and what this means for humans. It also gives an idea of the globalization of the resource, and its use in today’s modern industrial world.