Beach song by Ros Moriarty and Samantha Campbell

The endpapers will remind readers of the array of natural things found at the beach as they search the sand. The pages open to a child surfing with dolphins, soaring with seagulls, skimming with seals, staring out at the whales at the edge of the rocky reef, swimming with the little fish close to shore, watching the squid as it flies along the ocean floor. Each double page will entreat readers with a text describing what this animal sees as it lives in the ocean, asking the readers to think about what they see when they go to the beach. They can dip and dive, swim and snorkel, surf and float, twist and roll in the water, keeping their eyes on the view that the animals see. On the shore they can jump into a rock pool and stick like a limpet, scramble to the trees and laugh like a kookaburra, run and jump to see what the seagull sees, dig a stick into the sand, leaving trails like a lizzard, call like a cockatoo, until the day comes to a close, and he must do as the pelicans and the bats and owls do, and seek out his bed for the night.

Each time he sees an animal, the text is active, encouraging movement and involvement, showing the reader through text and image what that animal does as it is watched at the beach. Their voices will be heard in the classroom or where ever the book is read, with the listeners laughing like a kookaburra, calling like a cockatoo, hooting like a owl, splashing like the sea creature, blowing like a whale. The word and pictorial images will stay with the reader, and when they go to the beach, they will recall this story, keeping their eyes on alert for what they can find, hear and see.

Each double page shows a broad sweep of the beach and its creatures, both on the sand, on rocks or in the sea. This is a wonderfully interactive book.

Themes: Sea, Sea animals, Beach, Sand, Sea birds, Sounds.

Fran Knight