World Rivers Day

World Rivers Day

is celebrated every year

on the last Saturday of September! 

The founder is Mark Angelo, a river conservationist from Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.

Where on Earth are Rivers?

“I have never seen a river that I could not love. Moving water . . . has a fascinating vitality. It has power and grace and associations. It has a thousand colors and a thousand shapes, yet it follows laws so definite that the tiniest streamlet is an exact replica of a great river.” – Roderick Haig-Brown, Canadian naturalist

The St. Lawrence

“‘So-this-is-a-River.’

‘The River,’ corrected the Rat.

‘And you really live by the river? What a jolly life!’

‘By it and with it and on it and in it,’ said the Rat. ‘It’s brother and sister to me, and aunts, and company, and food and drink, and (naturally) washing. It’s my world, and I don’t want any other. What it hasn’t got is not worth having, and what it doesn’t know is not worth knowing. Lord! the times we’ve had together!'” – Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

The Rhine

“We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one.” Jacques Cousteau, French oceanographer

The Nile

“The river itself has no beginning or end. In its beginning, it is not yet the river; in the end it is no longer the river. What we call the headwaters is only a selection from among the innumerable sources which flow together to compose it. At what point in its course does the Mississippi become what the Mississippi means?” – T.S. Eliot, Introduction to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Mississippi

“Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known.” – A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

The Amazon

“Who hears the rippling of rivers will not utterly despair of anything.” – Henry David Thoreau, American naturalist

The Tigris and Euphrates

“Rivers know this: There is no hurry, we shall get there some day.” –  A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

The Yangtze

“Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: What is soft is strong.” – Lao-Tzu, Chinese philosopher 

The Ganges

“In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time.” – Leonardo da Vinci 

Rivers in Danger

Goodman, Polly. Rivers in Danger. New York: Gareth Stevens Pub., 2012.

Mighty Rivers

Green, Jen. Mighty Rivers. Mankato, Minn.: Smart Apple Media, 2010.

Make a Splash

Kaye, Cathryn Berger.  Make a Splash! : a Kid’s Guide to Protecting our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers & Wetlands. Minneapolis: Free Spirit Pub. Inc., 2013.

10 Rivers that Shaped the World

Peters, Marilee. Ten Rivers that Shaped the World. Toronto: Annick Press, 2015.

Renewing Earth's Waters

Peterson, Christine. Renewing Earth’s Waters. New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2011. 

Click HERE for picture books and novels about rivers!

“How lovely the little river is, with its dark changing wavelets! It seems to me like a living companion while I wander along the bank, and listen to its low, placid voice…” – George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss

Let’s Get Going!

Start Travelling!

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

Wheels on the Tuk Tuk

Sengal, Kabir & Surishtha Sengal. The Wheels on the Tuk Tuk. New York: Beach Lane Books, 2015.

Written to the rhythm of ‘The Wheels on the Bus’, this cheerful picture book will appeal to young children and nostalgic middle school readers.  

Click HERE for more picture books and novels set in India and Pakistan. 

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” – Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

Jack

de Paola, Tomie. Jack. New York:  Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014.

On the way to request a house from the king, Jack meets many animals. A brightly illustrated journey story for readers – and listeners – of all ages.

Click HERE for more picture books with a repetitive pattern. 

“Not all those who wander are lost.”  – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Skies Like These

Hilmo, Tess. Skies Like These. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014.

“While visiting her eccentric aunt who lives in Wyoming, twelve-year-old Jade befriends a boy who believes his is a descendant of Butch Cassidy.” – CIP. This lively story, with the rhythm of a rollicking square dance, is highly recommended for readers who love language and laughter.

Click HERE for more novels about moving.

“To travel is to live.”  – Hans Christian Andersen, The Fairy Tale of My Life: An Autobiography

Diamond Boy

Williams, Michael. Diamond Boy. New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2014.

“When Patson’s family moved to the Marange region of Zimbabwe he begins working in the mines, searching for blood diamonds, until government soldiers arrive and Patson is forced to journey to South Africa in search of his missing sister and a better life.” – CIP.  For competent readers 12-years-old and up.

Click HERE for more novels set in countries all around the world. 

“Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.”  – Anna Quindlen, How Reading Changed My Life