Tuesday Storytime: Going to the Beach

Back to picking my own topics for storytimes again!

August is pretty much the height of summer here in SC, so I'm celebrating my free choice of topics by spending some time focusing on boats, beaches, and swimming.

Today, the beach!

A Beach Tail
Karen Lynn Williams, illustrated by Floyd Cooper
ISBN: 9781590787120
An expressive black boy explores a beachfront, tethered to his dad by the long tail of a "sandy-lion" he's drawing in the sand.

Gorgeous illustrations, and a great story, and always so very nice to see POC in picture books without that being made a part or a focus of the story.  Gregory and his dad (just the two of them) are at the beach, and while dad rests in the shade of an umbrella, Greg draws a lion in the sand.  Dad warns him not to leave "Sandy" behind, and Greg complies by drawing the lion a long tail as he wanders along the beach.  Eventually the boy realizes he's gone too far from home base, but his "tail" is right there to guide him back, where his dad gently chides that "Sandy has a long tail" before they both head out for a swim.  This is my first read of this lovely book, but it certainly won't be the last.


All You Need for A Beach  
Alice Schertle, illustrated by Barbara Lavallee
ISBN: 0152167552
Roly-poly people with odd profile outlines populate a slowly-developing beach along with rollicking rhymes.

This is a fun one because of the language.  The rhymes and rhythm are so much fun to play with, and the conceit of only needing one simple thing for a beach - a grain of sand - AND a few trillion more AND some trees AND birds AND ocean... really makes the pages fly.  I've done this one a few times before, and it's always been a hit.


One White Wishing Stone
Doris H Gayzagian, illustrated by Kristina Swarner
ISBN: 0792251105
A National Geographic book, with a doll-like girl playing on a soft-edged, muted, calming beach.

This one is a very beautiful, and very soothing book.  A girl plays on the beach, collecting items starting with One white wishing stone, then Two periwinkle shells, and so on, until she has enough collected to build and decorate a sandcastle.  Once the waves reclaim her treasures, she keeps the periwinkles and the wishing stone and uses them as talismans that night to recall a beautiful day and anticipate others like it.  I love that it ends with the people home and remembering a happy time, and that it shows her leaving most of her collected treasures at the beach where they belong.