The squish

After it is stomped by one of its kid creators, the indignities keep piling up for this picture book's googly-eyed sandcastle protagonist. Initially, the first-person narrator tries to rebuild itself: "I've gotta... pick myself up, dust myself off, and be on the lookout!" Though it fashions itself even bigger each time, it's efforts are to no avail--its tower is quickly lopped off by a Frisbee, and a later rainstorm all but melts it. Even giving up ("Nothing can squish me if I'm already squished, right?") can't restrain the force of two sandcastle-builders and a big wave. But when the sandcastle notices a similarly afflicted sand creation, its perspective changes. "I thought it was just me, but we've all been squished, haven't we? And we didn't deserve what happened to us, did we?" With the help of some engineering-minded sand crabs, the two sandpiles unite into one dual-towered castle that's ready to "weather everything life throws at us... TOGETHER!" Alongside a familiar message of solidarity and resilience, visual storytelling from Carzoo (Greenlight)--single-plane images rendered in subtly dimensional cut-paper collage--has lots of good-hearted, goofy verve. Ages 4--8. Agent: Jennifer Rofé, Andrea Brown Literary. (May)

The beach is a rough place for a sand castle, what with all the feet, Frisbees, and other hazards around. Created by two children--one brown-skinned, one tan-skinned--a small, bucket-shaped castle with googly eyes and a hopeful smile ("Hello, world! Here I am!") faces a string of disasters, from a stomping foot to a shower of rain. Dampened but undaunted, the sandy jumble rises up into even higher and more elaborate structures…only to be knocked down again and again. Then a nearby castle that was constructed in the background by two brown-skinned children, only to suffer a "squish" of its own thanks to a passing wave, prompts a proposal: "Let's pick ourselves up, / dust ourselves off, / and weather everything life throws at us… / TOGETHER!" If the generalized monologue seems addressed more to younger adults than children, and superfluous anyway given that few if any readers will have trouble recognizing that both the setting and squishing are intended to be metaphorical, the text does add further lift to the visual buoyancy of the low-angled collage beachscapes, created from paper grocery bags, construction paper, and a little sand. The closing "Hello, world! Here we are!" makes a fitting caption to the final view of a magnificent, double-towered construct festooned with banners and waving crabs…and, it seems, only seconds away from one more crashing, but never crushing, squish. Buckets of sandy uplift. (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.