When Cody wakes up thirsty one morning, the glass beside his bed is empty, and his mother has used the last of the water in the kitchen to make oatmeal. Outside, the family’s big water barrels are dry. Fortunately, elsewhere on the Navajo reservation, Darlene Arviso fills her tanker truck from the water tower. As Cody’s grandmother tells him the story about the Water Sprinkler, the Navajo god who collects water to make rain, the “Water Lady” drives her truck from home to home on the reservation. Over the course of a month, she will deliver water to more than 200 families before beginning her route all over again. When the Water Lady arrives at Cody’s home, he watches as she fills his family’s barrels with clean water that will be used and reused conscientiously and sparingly: Many on the reservation will use only seven gallons of water per day, compared to the hundred or so used daily by most others in the United States. Ink-and-watercolor illustrations showcase the warm colors of the reservation’s desert landscape. This appealing and eye-opening tale sheds light on Darlene Arviso’s important work on the Navajo reservation. (Ages 5-10)

This inspiring picture book tells the true story of a woman who brings desperately needed water to families on the Navajo reservation every day.

Underneath the New Mexico sky, a Navajo boy named Cody finds that his family's barrels of water are empty. He checks the chicken coop-- nothing. He walks down the road to the horses' watering hole. Dry. Meanwhile, a few miles away, Darlene Arviso drives a school bus and picks up students for school. After dropping them off, she heads to another job: she drives her big yellow tanker truck to the water tower, fills it with three thousand gallons of water, and returns to the reservation, bringing water to Cody's family, and many, many others. Here is the incredible and inspiring true story of a Native American woman who continuously gives back to her community and celebrates her people.