The Water Princess by Susan Verde & Peter H. Reynolds


Summary: Based on supermodel Georgie Badiel’s childhood, a young girl dreams of bringing clean drinking water to her African village. A warm and visually engaging story that fosters empathy and compassion.

In a small African village, Princess Gie Gie’s kingdom is a beautiful land. It has a wide sky and warm earth, but what it does not have is clean water. And try as she might, she cannot bring the water neither closer nor run clearer. Each morning she rises before the sun to make the long journey to the well with her mother. After the voyage home, after boiling the water to drink and clean with, Gie Gie thinks of the trip that tomorrow will bring. And she dreams. She dreams of a day when her village will have cool, clear water of its own. A touching, beautifully illustrated story that invites readers to see the world through another’s eyes and encourages empathy and emotional understanding.


PYP Theme: Sharing the Planet. An inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things; communities and the relationships within and between them; access to equal opportunities.

Other possible connections:
• Who We Are (identity, beliefs/values, what it means to be human) — empathy, daily life in different contexts.
• Where We Are in Place and Time — human impact on environments, fairness across places.



Learner Profile: Caring, Principled, Open-minded, Inquirer.
Possible Central Idea / Lines of Inquiry:
• Access to basic resources like water is a shared global responsibility.
• Lines: Rights to clean water; daily impacts on communities; actions we can take locally/globally (e.g., conservation, awareness).