Queen Vic's Bookshelf: A New Fountain Should Be an Easy Proposal

Some of my fondest memories are helping my aunt in her classrooms during the summer. She taught fourth grade for many years, but has also taught fifth through eighth, I believe, and worked as the library/media specialist in her school. She's lucky enough to have worked for over twenty years at the same school. (Is that lucky? I don't know!) Needless to say, I got some fabulous books from her. She would often send me home with a book to read from her shelf with instructions to tell me what I thought of it when I have it back.

One book she gave me to read when I was eight or nine years old was Regarding the Fountain: A Tale, in Letters, of Liars and Leaks by Kate Klise and illustrated by M. Sarah Klise. It was a quick read, but it's funny because there are plays on words on every page. Every name, if you say it out loud, sounds like something else. There are names like Dee Eel (Deal), Sally Mander (Salamander), Minne O. (Minnow), and Sam N. (Salmon). These, combined with the quick exchanges and the fast characterization. The book is told through a series of letters, memos, postcards, and pictures. Each character has their own font and personality, which is quickly established.

The principal of Dry Creek Middle School, Walter Russ, writes a letter to Florence Waters, a famous fountain designer, asking her to replace the leaking drinking fountain by Sam N.'s fifth grade classroom. She agrees, but writes to the fifth graders asking for their ideas. As they are going to see it the most, their opinions matter to her. This starts an exchange of letters where a relationship builds between the class and the designer. She sends them letters and gifts to help their learning, and they send her fountain ideas and information about their history project. While they are investigating the history of the town, they uncover a secret conspiracy to limit water.

It was many years between the first time I read this book (which had to be some time around 2000, two years after it was published) and when I bought my own copy, but I never forgot about the book. It's a great one for a short laugh, and it would be a great book to read with a child around third grade or so. The reading level is fifth grade, but it is enjoyable at a younger age. They might not catch all of the plays on words, but that doesn't make it any less fun. What I was really excited about, though, was that when I looked up Regarding the Fountain, I found four more books in the series--Regarding the Sink, Regarding the Bathrooms, Regarding the Trees, and Regarding the Bees. Each is just as funny as the last, and in all of them you learn things. For instance, in Regarding the Bathrooms, there is a lot of Roman history, and specifically information on Roman baths. It's fascinating, and tied into the story in an easy to read, believable way.