Gaia Girls, Way of Water!

Each month in 2007, The Ocean Project highlights a book focused on our blue planet or environmental sustainability. Books for all age groups will be covered, non-fiction and fiction, prose and poetry. Here's one selection for juvenile and young adult readers:

Gaia Girls Way of Water
by Lee Welles

"What would you do if you could hear the Earth asking for help? In the Gaia Girls book series that is what happens to four girls, each from a different region of the world. They are approached by Gaia, the living organism of the Earth. Each is endowed with powers over one of the four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. They must learn to use their powers to help Gaia survive the effects of modern humanity." – Lee Welles

What would you do if you could talk to mother earth and help solve pressing environmental issues? Gaia Girls can. Gaia Girls, Way of Water is the second book in a series of four adventure novels by Lee Welles. Each book a girl from a different part of the world is chosen to become a Gaia Girl, and is given the gift of understanding the earth on a new, deeper, and much more intense level.

In Gaia Girls, Way of Water ten year old Miho loses her parents at sea. Alone in the world, she is forced to live with her uncle in Japan. As Miho is mourning the loss of her parents she also struggles with her Japanese American identity. She immediately goes to the ocean, the only familiar thing to her in a new land. It is here that she meets Gaia and starts her magical adventures in the sea.

Gaia Girls Way of Water is an educational adventure story for juveniles/ young adults. It’s engaging and a great way to introduce young adults to environmental threats through an energetic, emotional, and exciting story. As a child Welles dreamed of talking to animals, and in fact tried on many occasions. Gaia Girls taps into the innocent love for nature that children possess, but also introduces the harsh realities and hardships the environment endures at the hands of humans.

The book is printed on recycled paper by Chelsea Green Publishing and comes accompanied with a page on The Ocean Project and a glossary of 60 Japanese words. You will be surprised how many of these words you pick up just from reading Gaia Girls, Way of Water! Once you’re finished reading feel free to comment on the Gaia Girls blog. Enjoy!