Review by Booklist Review
The creators of Over the Shop (2021) return with another wordless picture book, this one celebrating the joys of a summer beach day. A young family arrives by bus and excitedly scrambles down the dunes to the water's edge. After scouting out the area, the three kids take up pails and shovels, and cooperate to create a sandcastle. Throughout the day they overcome a series of challenges: Dad warns of the encroaching tide; a gust of wind crashes a lady's hat into the structure; and a toddler wanders through, oblivious to his surroundings. With each setback the siblings assess, problem solve, and build it back better than before. Leng's watercolor-and-ink illustrations employ a sunny palette of sky blues and sandy shades of beige, accented with brightly hued beachwear and gear. Paneled layouts provide ample opportunity for readers to view each step in the siblings' process, and close-ups of their facial expressions (frustration, disappointment, determination) add nuance to the story. Equally intriguing are the other beach goers (in various shapes, sizes, and colors), whose details hint at their own stories. Young readers will also appreciate that these parents, while always within eyesight, mostly leave the kids to their own devices, allowing for a most satisfying beach day for everyone.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The team behind Over the Shop offers a wordless story about a long, wonderful day at the seashore. The pink-skinned family of five, first seen aboard a sleek bus, tumble off at a beach stop and hurry toward the water. While the adults pitch an umbrella farther up the beach, the children find some sand mounds near the ocean's edge and begin building. Ignoring one of the adults' advice to move back from the waves, Leng shows the three reinforcing their castle with an ocean-side berm. But the tide is inexorable, and after a windblown hat takes out a turret, a big wave flattens the rest. After lunch, the children begin again, more inland, patiently building until a toddling child, then the creeping tide, topple their creation. They've got the routine down now, though, and by day's end, they've built one that just might last. Leng's long views of the beach toggle between the sweep of sea and sky and an ever-changing community of friendly beachgoers (sharp-eyed readers may spot some friends from Over the Shop), while Lawson creates a portrait of the best kind of childhood learning curve--slow, cooperative, independent, and made with little more than sand and water. Ages 4--8. (May)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Horn Book Review
Two adults and three children take the bus to the beach and spend the day building and rebuilding sandcastles in this wordless picture book conceived by Lawson and brought to life by Leng (the team behind Over the Shop, rev. 3/20). Leng renders the beach in sunny watercolors and delicate, wispy ink lines that capture the movement of dune grass, waves, and sand in the wind. The pacing moves like waves, too, with panoramic double-page spreads alternating with pages of panels that zoom in on the action. Leng offers details that create an authentic setting and narrative while leaving room for child viewers to interpret the characters' relationships to one another as they will. There's a corresponding generosity in the rich array of people who surround the children, each involved in their own activities -- sunbathing, picnicking, running, playing. The narrative focus is on the three children and their sandcastles as, throughout the day, ocean waves, an errant hat, and a wandering toddler force reconstruction, each iteration growing ever more elaborate (and higher up the shoreline). The joy here is in the process and in the warmth of a happy day, and readers will enjoy being part of it until the evening tide forces the crew to pack up and take the bus home. Adrienne L. Pettinelli May/June 2022 p.125(c) Copyright 2022. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An idyllic day at the beach silently unfolds. As they did in Over the Shop (2021), Lawson and Leng create ample space for the reader to supply the story. The artwork begins and ends with lovely vistas of sea gulls on a deserted beach and a White family--a mother, father, and three kids--arriving and departing by bus. An image of the older boy running through dunes and beach grass, waving his shirt like a flag, sets the tone of exuberant joy. Everyone on this beach is cheerful and relaxed. Readers see beachgoers of various ages, skin tones, and body types engaged in sundry activities, including swimming, wading, taking photos, and playing catch with a beach ball. The siblings build and rebuild a sand castle, molding, shaping, and decorating it with found treasures only to have it repeatedly destroyed by the tide or sunbathers. The parents don't try to solve this problem, instead allowing the children to persist and decide whether and where to rebuild. The family has a picnic lunch and there is an encounter with a particularly assertive sea gull. Subtle changes in the position of the sun and the shrinking beach as the tide moves in signal the passage of time. Single-page and double-page montages consisting of rows of square and rectangular panels are used to compress time, highlight characters' emotions, and create bridges between scenes. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A wondrous wordless picture book that will make readers want to grab a sand bucket and head to the beach. (Picture book. 2-7) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
