Skip to main content

Books That Take You There: The Beach

Image
By
When I was growing up, my family would usually spend at least a little time in the summer at the beach in North Carolina. It was always a highlight of summer and one of my favorite parts of the year. Even now, as a grown-up, I love any chance I get to take a trip to the beach and be reminded of one of my favorite parts of childhood. But because I live in Utah, I can't get to the beach as often as I'd like, and so I am always on the lookout for beachy books that make me feel like I'm really there. If you'd like to escape on a beach vacation in your mind, here are some recommendations for you!

Chase the Moon Tiny Turtle
By Kelly Jordan
Illustrated by Sally Walker
Salem, MA: Page Street Kids, 2021. Informational.

In this rhyming picture book, we follow a newborn sea turtle's suspenseful and dangerous journey from egg to ocean. With danger lurking all along the way, readers will be anxious to see the newly hatched turtle make it safely. The illustrations are slightly stylized, but effectively beachy and make this a satisfying bedtime read aloud for anyone thinking about the beach.

By Elisha Cooper
New York: Orchard Books, 2006. Picture book.

Something I love about the beach is how it can sometimes be a fun, loud, noisy place or sometimes it can be a quiet place. The sound of waves hitting the sand tends to drown out extra noise and you can spend a quiet, still day at the beach. This picture book, an oldie but a goodie, captures both aspects of the beach perfectly. Sometimes fun and noisy, but sometimes still and quiet -- the beach is a great place to spend a day.


By Fiona Lumbers
London: Andersen Press USA, 2020. Picture book.

In this British picture book, a girl named Clem goes beachcombing for treasures when she befriends a little crab who stows away in her pant leg and follows her home. Before returning the crustacean to the sea, she brings him to school for show and tell along with a collage of the plastic waste she found on the beach. The wonderfully beachy illustrations are a perfect match for this book's important message about preserving our coasts.


By Beth Ferry
Illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020. Picture book.

This is one of my very favorite picture books, bar none, and a lot of that has to do with the perfectly beachy illustrations that evoke the seaside flawlessly. The illustrations are a perfect match to the story of a curmudgeonly sea captain, his gregarious new neighbor, and a mischievous ocean. This book demands to be read aloud -- before and after a beach trip.

By Susan Wood
Illustrated by Steliyana Doneva
Ann Arbor, MI: Sleeping Bear Press, 2019. Picture book.

A family is spending the day at a sandy beach when they notice animal tracks in the sand. The family explores the beach to see who is leaving the tracks and discovers crabs, sandpipers, turtles, and more. This is an immediately engaging and inviting book that will encourage readers to explore the world around them and remember the fun animals they found on the beach.








Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

If You Like...KPop Demon Hunters

By
KPop Demon Hunters has been one of the most talked-about movies of the summer. If you loved this movie as much as I did, you don't want the magic (or the music) to stop. Try reading these books that touch on some of the same topics and themes as the animated hit! Brick Dust and Bones By M. R. Fournet New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2023. Fiction. 247 pages. Orphaned Marius works in the family business--as their cemetery's ghost caretaker. However, Marius also moonlights as a monster hunter in order to earn the costly Mystic currency he needs to bring his mother back from the dead. As the window to bring his mother back begins to close, Marius's exploits get more and more dangerous, and he may have set his sights on a monster too big to handle on his own. Like Mira, Marius longs for familial connection, and his work as a monster hunter will satisfy the thrill of demon hunting for fans the movie. Where's Halmoni? By Julie J. Kim Seattle, WA: Little Bigfoot, 2017. Comics. W...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Library in the Woods

By
  The Library in the Woods Written by Calvin Alexander Ramsey Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie Minneapolis, MN : Carolrhoda Books, 2025. Picture Book. I am always intrigued by picture books that tell stories from the past in beautiful and meaningful ways, leaving the reader educated, and also hopeful and inspired. This book definitely did that for me! The cover is a beautiful peek into the story waiting on the pages. Junior and his family have lived on a farm that is having a hard time producing what it needs to for the family to survive economically. The parents make the hard decision to move away from the farm and into the city. Junior misses a lot of things about his life in the country. However, when Junior's friends tell him about a library in the woods, things change for him in the best way! He is amazed by the seemingly endless collection of books, and is eager to check some out for his family. Junior excitedly borrows a few books, including one about a farmer for his dad ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Tumblebaby

By
Tumblebaby Written by Adam Rex Illustrated by Audrey Helen Weber New York : Neal Porter Books/Holiday House, 2024. Picture book. I love a funky picture book. Slumbering Tumblebaby rolls out the door and into a wonderfully meandering yarn, thwarting scoundrels and coyotes, scaling unclimbable mountains, and even building a community center in Colorado City. Adam Rex's text reads like a folksy tall tale, punctuated by funny lines and rhyming chants.  Weber's colorful, round illustrations feel a little Fauvist, a little cubist. It's a sort of "Oh, The Places You'll Go!"  but in reverse - we learn in the last few pages that, in fact, that baby was YOU! This revelation made my young son gasp, which made me choke up.  Tumblebaby is a surreal delight perfect for reading together. 
Post a Comment
Read more