The Watertower turned heads from the moment it was published--literally as well as figuratively. That's because, to begin with, the reader must actually turn the book on its side to read it and then continue to turn it as the story progresses (or doesn't, depending on your interpretation). According to one advocate, a high school English teacher, the actual turning/handling along with the tantalizing clues to the story--is what hooks her student readers, particularly the less enthusiastic ones. The story follows two teenage boys — Spike and Bubba — who live out in a country town called Preston. They live nowhere near the beach and there's no pools around, so to cool off they decide to go for a dip in the enigmatic water tower. Bubba loses his shorts and is too embarrassed to go home, so Spike runs home to get him another pair. While Spike is gone, Bubba begins to suspect that there might be more to the water tower... Crop Circles: The circular design on the water tower as well as the book's aesthetic all allude to this.

Gary Crew has been awarded the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the year four times: twice for Book of the Year for Young Adult Older Readers (Strange Objects in 1991 and Angel’s Gate in 1993) and twice for Picture Book of the Year with First Light in 1993 (illustrated by Peter Gouldthorpe) and The Watertower (illustrated by Steven Woolman) in 1994. Gary’s illustrated book, Memorial (with Shaun Tan) was awarded the Children’s Book Council of Australia Honour Book in 2000 and short listed for the Queensland Premier’s Awards. He has also won the Wilderness Society Award, the Whitley Award and the Aurealis Award for Speculative Fiction.The Corruption: Bubba's fate at the end. It's implied the adults in Preston have gone through this as well. This book draws you in right from the beginning with the cover. The cover is eerie and also has some foreshadowing to what is to come. This is a great mystery book for children and I really believe that older children will love it. All in all an excellent and really quite gripping story with so much unsaid and yet clear from the clever combination of text and image.

Abandoned Area: Played with. The water tower isn't well-guarded and just barely kept from falling into disrepair. The sequel reveals that whoever put it there wanted people to think it was this. Whole Class Reading resources and planning for Year 6 in a zip file based on Gary Crew’s book ‘The Water Tower’. Night Swim Equals Death: Subverted. The sotry takes place during the day and nobody dies...we think.A great Halloween read-aloud, good for grades 3+, with large, bright illustrations and tons to discuss... The characters are illustrated in a lifelike manner, and some are positioned as if they are looking right at us. How does that make us feel and how does that change the story? Why would the author and illustrator want to change the direction of the layout throughout the book? What do you think Bubba saw when he was by himself in the water tower and why didn���t the author let us know? This book drew me in by the eery cover. I was also anxious to see how anyone could make a water tower interesting. The story is set in the small town of Preston, with the Water Tower sitting atop Shooter’s Hill. The two main characters, Spike Trotter and Bubba D’Angelo got together one day and headed to the water tower to swim. The illustrations did a great job of continuing to depict the eery feel that the author wanted his readers to feel; one picture would show the outside bright and cheery while the next picture showed the dark and gloomy inside as the boys descended down the ladder into the water. Unfortunately when they went to leave, Bubba’s clothes had blown away or had been taken so, Spike ran to the house to get Bubba some clothes so he wouldn’t return home and get in trouble with his mom. Spike and Bubba could sense something weird going on around them but just couldn’t figure out what was going on, even the people in the town all stared strangely at Bubba has he ran through to the house. Primal Fear: Everything about the water tower is meant to tap into something scary. It's secluded, the inside is dark, the entrance is very high up etc. Bubba gets a sense of paranoia and tries to get away from it, not understanding why he's so afraid. They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Alluded to at first and expanded upon in Beneath the Surface. The water turns everyone who drinks it into something sinister, despite little change in their appearance.

The ‘Watertower’ is essentially a graphic novel or visual text, making use of both words and art to impart the story. The books itself centres around two boys who decide to explore an old water tower, which towers over the small mid American town of Preston. The Water tower dominates the town, standing high upon Shooter’s hill.Jameyson (2012) contends The Watertowerhas "hooked" its readers from the very beginning, especially students who do not like to read at all: He lives with his wife Christine on several acres in the cool, high mountains of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland in Queensland, Australia in a house called 'Green Mansions' which is shaded by over 200 Australian rainforest palms he has cultivated. He enjoys gardening, reading, and playing with his dogs Ferris, Beulah, and Miss Wendy. In his spare time he has created an Australian Rainforest Garden around his home, filled with Australian palms. Gary loves to visit antique shops looking for curios and beautiful objects.