Lottie and Walter (review #2), written by Anna Walker, reviewed by Klaudia Janek

Student Reviewer: Alexa D.
Summary: Lottie goes to swim class every week, but she has a scary secret that keeps her out of the water every Saturday. There’s a shark in the water that only wants to eat her. As she gets ready to leave swim class the week before the pool party, she finally meets Walter, a walrus who doesn’t have much to say. She and Walter bond over fish sticks and bubbles, books and singing, and the day of the pool party comes around. She and Walter will not be swimming. She stands by the side of the pool, still in fear of the shark, and starts to hear a song. As she listens, she recognizes it as Walter’s song! She jumps in and sings and swims with all her friends, conquering her fear of the water.

Straight Talk for Librarians: This book uses watercolor images, and within the illustrations is able to represent a diverse community, which is very admirable and an important aspect in children’s books. It takes a fun and new perspective on the fears that young kids may have. With Lottie’s fear of swimming and water, she is able to break down this scary creature into a lovable one and face her fears, ending up happier because of it. It was really enjoyable to see the representation of the building of a bond between Lottie and Walter, as he earned her trust over kid friendly things, like fish sticks and singing their special song. When he builds this trust in Lottie, it helps her to overcome this fear she has of the water because she knows Walter will make sure she’s okay. I definitely feel like this is an accurate representation of what tools the young readers will need to face their own fears. They need trust in those around them, someone standing by their side until they’re ready, and to be able to break down the fear they have into more kid-friendly terms. This book does this in a very fresh way that I never would have expected and it was cool to see how the story developed. It is also an easy concept for children to grasp, and the illustrations and the story combined will captivate and keep the interest of young readers. The story develops at a great pace, it has an easy to follow plot, etc. This book would be a good choice for a school library. It could be used for a summer book display with other beach and swimming books.