Wendy Willow Water Ballerina is a story all about synchronised swimming. It is proud and passionate and quite informative about a sport that is not particularly well known (well – where I am in Australia).

Wendy Willow is the star of this book and she tells us her story directly from her own mouth and it follows her journey to becoming a synchronised swimmer and everything she learns and gains from this wonderful and unique sport.

The story is really sweet and is based on the authors personal experience. It has bucket loads of passion and you really feel that she just wants everyone to know all about this swimming and encourage other children to do it too.

The watercolour illustrations are lovely and also super sweet. I love the cover and the little girls proud little smile, made me smile too. The soft colour palette of pinks and yellows works really nicely.

The story is on the longer side, so will suit an audience of 4 and above.

Diana Garcia dedicated this book to Australian swimmer Annette Kellermann (1887-1975), who was born in Sydney, Australia, and popularised synchronised swimming for women. She came to the U.S. as a young woman and her life story was the inspiration for the movie “Million Dollar Mermaid”. Schronised swimming was also going to be featured in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and this book would have worked as a perfect way to introduce children to the concept before watching it on television.

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Title: Wendy Willow Water Ballerina

Author/Illustrator: Diane Garcia / Ida Noelle Calumpang

Publisher: Unknown

Published: 2019

Ages: 4-8