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"The Boy Who Wouldn't Swim," by Deb Lucke, takes place during a summer so hot that everyone in town practically lives at the community swimming pool: "There wasn't a person in Clermont County who didn't have prune toes."
Only Eric Dooley sat sweating on a chaise lounge, afraid to get in the pool.
No amount of coaxing from his mother, his pals or even a kindly adult friend who throws a nickel into the water and says, "Finders, keepers," will budge Eric from the chaise.
He's a humorously pitiful figure, a blow-up giraffe around his waist, trying to ignore the cool fun.
The worst comes when his younger sister, Jessica, gets to take over the swim lesson meant for him. He watches miserably during June as she progresses rapidly from blowing bubbles, to floating, to dog-paddle, to swimming across the deep water.
In July and August, he can barely stand it when she conquers the diving board. Finally, heat and jealously become stronger than his fear.
In a scenario that will be repeated in pools across the country this summer, Eric is transformed from the boy who wouldn't swim to "the boy who wouldn't get out of the pool."
Many youngsters will relate to Eric's story. And those who have no fear of the water will enjoy Lucke's cool, entertaining illustrations of people having a grand time in the water.
In "Little by Little," by Amber Stewart, Otto makes a list of the things he can and can't do. The "can-do" list is long, including such talents as sand-castle building and being kind to frogs.
But, swimming, the single item on the "can't-do" list, is big when one is an otter child.
His friends pressure him. But his mother and sister offer the best kind of encouragement.
"Little by little, you will learn to swim," his mother says.
"You have to start small," says his sister. "That's how I did it when I learned to swim."
Under the watchful eyes of his sister, Otto edges along the riverbed, lifting his feet a little longer in the water each time. Soon he floats. Then he kicks. It isn't long before he's swimming the whole width of the river.
Finally he gathers his friends and family to watch his grand dive off a high rock into a deep pool.
It's a lovely story about family and persistence, accompanied by sweet watercolors by Layn Marlow.
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"The Boy Who Wouldn't Swim"
By Deb Lucke
Clarion Books, 32 pages, $16, ages 5 to 8
"Little by Little"
By Amber Stewart
Illustrations by Layn Marlow
Orchard Books, 26 pages, $12.99, ages 4 to 8
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(c) 2008, The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.).
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