Please welcome my guest author, Valerie Bolling, with her picture Book list on learning on to swim. Her newest picture book, Together We Swim, celebrates overcoming fear and learning a new skill.

What are your favorite picture books about swimming? Thanks for sharing!

Together We Swim by Valerie Bolling, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita

Celebrate mother-son love and the achievement of a childhood rite of passage. With a little courage and a guiding hand from his mom, one brave boy learns the freedom that comes from an afternoon spent swimming in a pool. [picture book, ages 3 and up]

We are also giving away a 15-minute Ask Me Anything (AMA)! This is perfect for anyone who wants to learn about becoming a children’s book author, literacy, and more. To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter at the bottom.

Picture Books on Swimming

Our Pool by Lucy Ruth Cummins

This is a book that showcases all the fun that occurs with an intergenerational community at their neighborhood pool. You’ll want to dive into this book. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

When We Can Swim by Jack Wong

Imagine all the thrilling things you can see and the amazing adventures you can have when you’re able to swim. This book will surely inspire young, beginning swimmers – maybe some older swimmers, too. [picture book, ages 3 and up]

Swim, Duck, Swim! by Susan Lurie, photography by Murray Head

This duck needs support and encouragement to swim just like the boy in TOGETHER WE SWIM. And, just like the boy, the duck learns to swim and enjoys acquiring this new skill. Murray Head’s photographs add a wonderful touch to this story. [picture book, ages 3 and up]

Bubbles … Up! by Jacqueline Davies, illustrated by Sonia Sanchez

It’s a fun day at the pool with a group of children enjoying themselves. When it thunders, it’s time to take a break, but soon the swimming and fun resumes. There’s a duck in this story, too, but maybe not the kind you’re imagining. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

Swim, Jim! By Kaz Windness

This story has elements of Bubbles Up! and Swim, Duck, Swim! Jim is a crocodile who is fearful, not of swimming but of sinking. He goes off to explore a smaller swamp where he’ll be more comfortable in the water and sees children in a pool. That gives him an idea! Jim knows what he needs to do, and, eventually, he even learns to swim. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

Saturday is Swimming Day by Hyewon Yum

This story represents the beginning swimming experience – or any new experience – that a child is not eager about trying or may even be afraid to try. The swim teacher in the story knows just how to respect and encourage the girl so that she goes from not wanting to swim – and not knowing how — to enjoying it and becoming a more confident swimmer. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

Brave in the Water by Stephanie Wildman, illustrated by Jenni Feidler-Aguilar

This is another story about a child who’s afraid to swim. His grandmother is afraid of something, too, and they each teach one another how to be brave and do the thing that scares them. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

Swimmy by Leo Lionni

This book has been around for years, but its message is universal and resonates today. When the sea creatures collaborate and swim together, they are able to survive being eaten by bigger fish. When we work together, we are unstoppable. [picture book, ages 3 and up]

Sakamoto’s Swim Club: How a Teacher Led an Unlikely Team to Victory by Julie Abery, illustrated by Chris Sasaki

This short, rhyming book tells the true story of a swim coach who trained a group of swimmers in Maui who had less-than-ideal circumstances for learning how to swim. The ultimate success is that one of the swimmers won an Olympic gold medal. [picture book, ages 5 and up]

Ask Me Anything GIVEAWAY!

We are giving away a 15-minute Ask Me Anything (AMA)! This is perfect for anyone who wants to learn about becoming a children’s book author, literacy, and more. To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Valerie Bolling is the author of the 2021 SCBWI Crystal Kite award-winning and CT Book Award finalist LET’S DANCE! (March 2020). In 2022 Valerie is happy to welcome TOGETHER WE RIDE (April) and RIDE, ROLL, RUN: TIME FOR FUN! (October). Sequels to these books as well as a Scholastic early reader series, RAINBOW DAYS, are slated for 2023.

A graduate of Tufts University and Columbia University, Teachers College, Valerie has been an educator for almost 30 years. She currently works as an Instructional Coach for Greenwich Public Schools and is on the faculty at Westport Writers’ Workshop. She is also a WNDB mentor and deeply immersed in the kidlit writing community, particularly involved with SCBWI, the 12X12 Picture Book Challenge, and Black Creators HeadQuarters.

Valerie and her husband live in Connecticut and enjoy traveling, hiking, reading, going to the theater, and dancing. To learn more about Valerie, go to her website  and Linktree, and follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. 

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My books:

Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World

• Junior Library Guild Gold selection
• Selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
• Starred review from School Library Journal

 Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me

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BEST #OWNVOICES CHILDREN’S BOOKS: My Favorite Diversity Books for Kids Ages 1-12 is a book that I created to highlight books written by authors who share the same marginalized identity as the characters in their books.

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