Simple text and colorful cut-paper illustrations combine in a celebration of the beauty and usefulness of water that depicts such objects as a rainy day, steam cooking, and ice cubes. Gr. 1-^2. "I am water for cooking. / I am ice for cooling. / I am snow for sledding. / I am pools for splashing. / I am all that, and I am more." Marzollo celebrates water in all its forms in this very basic reader, a pre-primer with one sentence per double-page spread, large type, and plenty of repetition. Both the text and the illustrations are well above average, with Moffatt combining crisply cut shapes in an eye-catching variety of colored and textured papers into pop-off-the-paper collages. The exuberant pictures and a text in which each sentence begins "I am" and continues with a science theme will entice even those readers who at first balk at giving it a try. An opening note to parents makes thoughful, clear suggestions to help them teach their children reading skills. Susan Dove Lempke "Both the text and the illustrations are well above average. An opening note to parents makes thoughtful, clear suggestions to help them teach their children reading skills."-bklist Jean Marzollo was the award-winning author of over 100 books, including the bestselling I Spy series; Help Me Learn Numbers 0-20 ; Help Me Learn Addition ; Help Me Learn Subtraction ; Pierre the Penguin ; Soccer Sam ; Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King ; The Little Plant Doctor ; In 1776 ; Mama Mama/Papa Papa ; and I Am Water ; as well as books for parents and teachers, such as The New Kindergarten .