Patricia Smith's Eva's Imagination is a story about a young girl named Eva learning how to swim. She is a three-year-old girl who is very energetic and bright. She is also imaginative and quite talkative, which causes her to be distracted while in swimming classes. However, it does not stop her from performing well during her lessons. Join Eva in her swimming lessons and learn a thing or two from her instructor, Ms. Pat, and from Eva's amusing imagination!

Eva's Imagination, written by Patricia Smith, is a playful, educational and fast-paced story that taught me a few things about swimming. It teaches readers about safety in and around the water. The explanations and the different rules that Ms. Pat, the instructor, taught Eva are easy to understand. The simple and creative illustrations that accompany the story help make the lessons easier to remember and comprehend. Our main character Eva is quite adorable and engaging. Her chattiness makes the swimming lessons even more entertaining and relatable. Ms. Pat is admirable for her patience with Eva, especially because Eva is easily distracted during their lessons.

Both Eva and her instructor also share a lot of educational information aside from swimming facts with young readers. Reading these interesting details and the dos and don'ts of swimming endeared me even more to the story. There were quite a few lessons to be learned too. Some examples of the lessons they shared are about planets and a few details about several animals. Kids will surely enjoy and learn a lot from reading this book, especially those interested in learning how to swim. The story was very educational from the beginning until the end. Great work!

Eva’s Imagination, written by Patricia Smith (a.k.a. Ms. Pat) and illustrated by Gramilla, is a picture book for youngsters aged between 6 months and 5 years. Smith, who is an American Red Cross certified Water Safety Instructor (WSI), has over 25 years of experience teaching children how to swim and be safe in and around water. Eva’s Imagination describes a 3-year-old’s adventures in water as she learns to swim for the first time. Implicitly, it tells of the relationship between the swimming instructor and her young charge, sharing how the older and wiser woman is able to relate to a child who develops from being out of her depth in water to where she is a confident little swimmer. Overall, it is a tale of bonding through the medium of water, and therefore comes across as a story of wonder and delight, as well as caution.

The bright and clear illustrations of Patricia Smith’s Eva’s Imagination bring the watery medium of the swimming pool to life. With each activity comes awareness of another swimming rule, perfectly balancing the enjoyment and sheer fun of the activity with inbuilt alertness to what a child needs to know to stay safe around water. Both parents/caregivers and children can benefit from the reading (aloud) of this text, as they become more in tune with the needs of youngsters around water. The direct speech interchange between adult and child is extremely well handled, with their speech being full of meaning and custodial warmth. Eva’s Imagination is both life-renewing and life-saving―a valuable gem of a picture book!