The Water Princess is an award-winning children’s book co-authored by Georgie Badiel and Susan Verde and illustrated by
Peter H. Reynolds. Named to the New York Public Library’s list of Best Picture Books for 2016, “The Water Princess” is based
upon Georgie’s childhood. The reader learns of Gie Gie’s daily journey for water with her cousins and grandmother which led one
day to Georgie starting the Georgie Badiel Foundation.
We are providing each class (PreK-2nd) with a copy of the book in hopes that you will participate by reading it with your
class and exploring the narrative of resilience, gratitude and service to others.
The New York Times bestseller A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about two eleven-yearolds
in Sudan, a girl in 2008 and a boy in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours’ walk from her
home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the “lost boys” of Sudan, refugees who cover
the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay. Enduring every hardship from
loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to
intersect with Nya’s in an astonishing and moving way.
This book is being explored through a book club with Miss Koval with grades 3-5. We hope that the overlaying message of
survival, strength and overcoming adversity can be explored in class as well as in book club.
Please ask your class to bring in spare change daily and at the end of the month of March, our spare change can be pooled
together and donated to assist in the Georgie Baddiel Foundation’s goal to get clean water for children across Africa.
We are providing each class with a small “well” which can be used to collect the change.
Thank you for your commitment to our students!