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The Watertower by Gary Crew and illustrated by Steven Woolman.  New York:  Crocodile Books, 1998.

ISBN: 1566562333

Media:  Pastel

Q5/P5

Friends, Bubba and Spike, go to climb inside the water tower in Preston.  No one can remember when it was built.  Bubba, left alone in the tank, comes back changed.

FBoggs 07/09

The Watertower by Gary Crew, Stephan Woolman, Ill. NY: Crocodile Books, 1998.

ISBN 1566563313 Q5/5P.

            This spooky thriller will sneak up on you and keep you guessing. Illustrations are realistic and have scary undertones that the text does not. Readers will re-read this one!

-Christina Gendron

Crew. G. 1998. The watertower. (Illustrated by Steven Woolman) New York: Crocodile Books. ISBN: 1-56656-233-3

Annotation – When two Australian boys decide to go for a swim in the local water tower, the experience ends traumatically for one of them, but does he remember what actually happened?

Media used for illustrations – chalk and pencil on black paper with acrylic paint on textured board. Woolman wanted to make the illustrations feel like the reader was in a darkened theatre so black permeates the book, especially surrounding the edges. Most of the panels are placed in a circular fashion so the reader has to change the position of the book to really grasp all the details, and then one is not quite sure what is “really” being depicted.

Rating for quality of text, illustrations and popularity - 4QT and 4QI/2P  (1 = low  -  5 = high)

Use of symbol – Throughout the illustrations the symbol of an almost complete circle broken up through individual rectangular shapes is used on various clothing pieces, buildings, and reflected in the townspeople’s eyes. It’s interesting that this “symbol” of the book, may or may not be a symbol for an alien presence or “big brother”. The reader isn’t quite sure if aliens rule through the watertower or the people of the town use the symbol to somehow control its inhabitants. The townspeople are always shown looking toward the watertower, even when one the boys comes back from the watertower alone, they keep looking at the boy left at the watertower. Generally, a symbol should be easily recognizable so the reader can relate it to their own experience, however, in this book’s case, the symbol seems to relate to something that the reader must decide its relationship to his/her own experience.

Preston, Australia….. The Watertower “towers” over the town. Bubba and Spike decide to take a swim. Bubba loses his shorts…. Spike goes to get him another pair, but when he returns Bubba has changed…. He has the strange insignia that appears everywhere in Preston…. What’s really going on in this outback town?

The very interesting thing about this book is the appeal to read it again and again to find out what “is” really going on. One never quite knows. There seems to be no definitive answer.

My first introduction to this book was when one of children was shelving picture books at the library where I work. She showed it to me and I read it right there… then I had to re-read it again—right there. Intrigued, I checked it out and took it home. I suggested another customer read it to help me understand what really happened. He was pleasantly vague about what he thought took place. That’s why I love this book… no one really knows what really happened.

It becomes a great tool for beginning conversation starters especially for those students who are less likely to participate.

Nancy