Regarding the Book About the Fountain

Regarding the Fountain by Kate Klise
Grade: B+

Dry Creek Middle School’s drinking fountain has sprung a leak, so the principal decides to buy a new one. He contacts Florence Waters of Flowing Waters Fountains, Etc. about buying a typical drinking fountain, but Florence is not a typical businessperson. This creative, world-traveling fountain-designer loves to write letters. She initiates correspondence with Sam N.’s fifth-grade class, and through these letters, as well as various other notes, faxes, drawings, transcripts, newspaper clippings, and photos, the stories of Dry Creek and its singular drinking fountain are revealed.

Amazon had tried to sell this book to me on several occasions, so I was interested enough to pick up a copy when I saw it at the library’s used book sale. I’m glad I didn’t pay full price for it, because while it’s a fun story with a very attractive presentation, it provided barely an hour’s worth of entertainment for me. I enjoyed it, but I think it falls into the same category as the Bruce Coville book I read a few years ago: entertaining, but not great. We each will only meet with a certain number of great books in our lives. But we still need other good books to read while we’re waiting for the great ones, and this is that kind of book. Recommended for children in the 8-12 range, but not so much for adults.

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