Water is Magic by Will Millard

Today, Will Millard, author of ‘In the Rockpool’ and ‘In the Pond’ by Magic Cat Publishing, tells us why he believes water is magic!

I can remember when I realised that water is magic.

I was only five years old when I dug a small hole in my back garden and sunk a washing-up bowl filled with rainwater into the void. It was late spring and I just wanted to see what would happen (fully expecting not a lot) but before that day had even ended, I’d watched in wide-eyed astonishment as a small group of house sparrows sipped from my bowl and bathed their wings.

The next day, I added some stones and a handful of pond weeds. That brought dragonflies in to lay their eggs, then bees started to use the water to cool their hives. In early summer I found a newt beneath a nearby log, and then its family blessed my bowl with their stringy spawn. Fragile newtlets crawled from the bowl at summer’s end and, without me really needing to do anything at all, I realised that the bowl was no longer mine.

Hundreds of tiny creatures had made it their home: whirling water bugs, diving beetles, blobby daphnia, slaters and shrimps – species numbering well into their dozens. I couldn’t even begin to imagine where on earth that profusion of life had actually come from – or how it had known my bowl was even there – this astonishing new mini-world in a place which had previously held, well, seemingly nothing whatsoever.

It just had to be magic.

With my water books, In the Rockpool and In the Pond, which form part of my ‘Three Step Stories’ series for the publishers Magic Cat, the intention was always to pull back that watery curtain for young readers to feel the magic for themselves. Simple rhymes describing complex aquatic behaviours, beautifully illustrated by Rachel Qiuqi, with straightforward flaps to pull little hands progressively deeper into this absorbing underwater world.

I wanted to take my reader beyond the usual suspects that appear in most children’s books about water animals. We meet cleaning prawns, predatory rock gobies, duelling hermit crabs, defensive sticklebacks, and secretive voles; all in accurately drawn habitats to help lend a feel for the deep richness of life to be found in an otherwise everyday setting – something much more in-line with what I’d discovered in that washing-up bowl some thirty-five years ago.

The complete ‘Three Step Stories’ series is out now, but next year Magic Cat will also publish My First Day Fishing – my book for older children to build on their knowledge of our aquascapes, whilst teaching them the steps to catch fish safely and responsibly. Alongside my books, I frequently take UK-wide tours of schools and libraries to talk all about water in-person; bringing ‘show and tell’ creatures from my ever-growing home ponds and tanks directly to children, to keep sharing the immense amount of joy that water has always given me – but, more than anything, to help inspire the next generation of water champions too.

In my lifetime, the waterways around my home have never had it so bad – but if people can’t easily see the magic in water, then how can they be expected to really care about saving it at all? I believe children are born with an innate curiosity about wildlife and water, but finding ways to sustain their interest throughout their life could scarcely be more important than it is right now.

Many thanks to Will and the team at Magic Cat for taking part in NNFN2023. You can find out more about Will on his website- https://www.willmillard.com/writing/.

We have three sets of the ‘Three Step Story Books’ to giveaway- so keep an eye out on X for the details!