2024 Water Safety and Family Book Pool Project
May is Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Month, and everyone can make a difference in drowning prevention (in the water or on dry land in your library!)
The Prevent Drowning Foundation of San Diego is seeking your support of the 2024 Water Safety Family Book Pool Project by showcasing and reading (in your library) Water Safety and Water Family Books and promoting the American Red Cross Longfellow’s WHALE Tales program. Please display or promote Water Safety, in May or all summer long!
Water Safety books provide specific water safety information. For example, one favorite- Josh the Baby Otter-has kids pledge “I promise to get an adult when I go near the water”. Here’s a link from National Drowning Prevention Alliance for more books: https://ndpa.org/teacher-toolkit/#readingcorner
A Water Family book showcases families swimming, boating, loving the pool and beach, and families who depend on water for livelihood and spiritual connection. In the beautiful A Mermaid Girl book, Heba is so excited to wear her new, yellow burkini to the community pool for the first time! She can’t wait to look like the other mermaid girls in her family and sparkle like the sun.” Links to books like this are included in the Book Pool List.
The American Red Cross released a refreshed version of its Longfellow’s WHALE Tales Water Safety for Children program last month. WHALE Tales is a dryland water safety education program designed to help make elementary school-aged children “water smart.” WHALE is an acronym for Water Habits Are Learned Early. www.redcross.org/take-a-class/teach-water-safety/whale-tales
We’ve compiled a list of 50 children’s books in the Book Pool that can be part of the lifelong family discussion of water and water safety. We are extremely grateful for your participation in the 2024 Water Safety Family Book Pool project.
