-- This title will ship on or after August 12, 2025 --
An intergenerational story about a nonbinary child who learns the tradition of well digging in this picture book about community, hope, and protecting the Earth’s water.
As soon as Kit’s old enough to ride in Grandpa’s truck, they begin joining him to dig wells for their community. Grandpa is magic. He can feel the weather in his bones, and he’s able to dance with water. With just a tree branch in his hand, Grandpa sways and spins over the land until he finds a spot to dig a hole into the waiting earth. When the water springs up, Grandpa and Kit jump for joy.
As new hotels and factories pop up across town, clean water becomes harder to find. Sometimes, no water flows at all. Kit is sad for Grandpa—and for Earth. But one day, Grandpa senses that Kit is ready to dance with water too. Grandpa reminds Kit that the energy and strength of their people flows through the water. As they wait and watch for fresh, clear water to flow up from the ground again, Kit recognizes the power shared between themself and Earth.
BIO
Gwendolyn Wallace is an award-winning children’s literature author and PhD student at MIT in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, & Society (HASTS). Her work for both children and adults centers Afrodiasporic voices to explore the unfolding relationship between the spatial logics of colonialism and our bodyminds. She has had the honor of working on multimedia nonfiction projects with Ado Ato Pictures, Forensic Architecture, and the Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. She is also a member of the TikTok Ethnography Collective. In 2021, Gwendolyn was chosen as the first fellow of the International African American Museum. Additionally, she is on the board of The REACH Fund of Connecticut (Reproductive Equity, Access & CHoice), a reproductive justice advocacy organization and Connecticut’s first abortion fund.
Gwendolyn’s writing for adults has been published in The Offing, Foglifter Journal, Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, the Center for Research Architecture, and more. She is the author of picture books Joy Takes Root and The Light She Feels Inside (2023), as well as forthcoming books Dancing With Water (2025) and Imagine New Suns(2026). As an author, she believes in the radical imaginations of Black youth and writes books to help them step into their transformative power.
REVIEWS
“A powerful nugget of culture and history fits snugly into Wallace’s graceful story.
Imbued with a beauty and strength that will leave a lasting impression.” -- Kirkus Reviews
[H] Kokila / August 12, 2025
1.25 lbs 40 pages
For ages 4 to 7