cover
In a sunlit kitchen, Zon stands on a stool beside the sink, faucet gushing water. His blue-glowing safety goggles cover eager eyes while he studies pipes faintly visible through the wall.
Zon turned on the kitchen tap and watched water rush out. 'Where does this water come from?' he wondered. He pulled down his safety goggles. Click! They glowed bright blue and turned into Zon-oculars! Now he could see through the walls. He saw pipes going deep, deep into the ground. 'Wow! I can see where the water travels!' Zon said excitedly. His amazing water adventure was about to begin!
At a rainy reservoir shore, afternoon light muted, Zon watches raindrops splash while blue-lit goggles reveal giant intake pipes with spinning impellers and a metal grate straining sticks; he points ahead, laughing.
Through his Zon-oculars, Zon saw raindrops falling into a huge lake called a reservoir. 'That's where it starts!' he cheered. Giant pipes sucked up the water with spinning impellers, like huge fans. Big metal grates caught sticks and leaves. 'It's like a giant spaghetti strainer!' Zon laughed. Then he saw something amazing—dirt particles playing freeze tag, sticking together and sinking down. The water squeezed through sand and charcoal filters. 'Now it's clean!' Zon said.
Outside beneath a clear morning sky, Zon stands near a towering white water tower; his glowing goggles show clean water surging upward inside and racing through branching underground pipes, while he lifts a fist triumphantly.
Zon watched huge pumps push the clean water up, up, up into a tall water tower. 'The tower is like a gravity battery!' he realized. The water rushed down from the tower into pipes that spread like tree roots under his neighborhood. The pipes built up pressure to push water against gravity. 'That's how it climbs up into my house!' Zon exclaimed. He could see the water zooming through the underground maze right to his kitchen!
Back in the bright kitchen, Zon twists the faucet handle, valve shown in cutaway as a tiny open gate; water whooshes into a clear glass he holds close, his grin wide with satisfied wonder.
Zon looked closely at the faucet with his Zon-oculars. Inside was a valve, like a tiny gate. When he twisted the handle, the gate opened wide. Whoosh! The water rushed through. Zon pushed his goggles up and smiled at his glass of water. 'I know your whole journey now,' he told the water. 'From rain to reservoir, through filters and towers, past pumps and pipes, all the way to my tap!' He took a big drink. 'Thanks, water!'