A Day At The Beach

(Hardback)

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Description

Look Both Ways meets Seedfolks in this masterful novel from two titans of kid lit that follows a diverse cast of young people whose lives intersect in surprising and hilarious ways over the course of a summer day.

Heres whats so cool aboutthebeach.Kids are everywhere!Kids you know, kids you want to know.Wandering from one blanket to another, from one family to another.Somebodys mom reads a fat summer novel.Somebodys dad snores withan iPad on his chest. Babies cry. Girls laugh.Frisbee players whoop!Kites intheperfect blue sky.

Some kids bodysurf.Some dont even likethewater.They build sand cities fortheir friendsand sand jails for the grown-ups, and whenthetide comes in everything gets washed away.

Therestheother world, where all kids hear is tomorrow, next week, next year. Andthentheresthebeach,where everything is right now!

Why cant everydaybe adayatthebeach

From two-time Newbery honoree Gary D. Schmidt and two-time PEN Award winner Ron Koertge comes a moving and often laugh-out-loud funny middle grade novel about family, friendship, and belonging, told by a group of kids spending a day at the beach.Thoughtful vignettes brilliantly weave together an irresistible tale of tween conflict and connections.

Reviews

Most Anticipated Middle Grade Reads of 2025 -- School Library Journal

"A sandy slice-of-life treat, rich in feeling and insight." -- Kirkus Reviews

Author Bio

Gary D. Schmidt is the bestselling author of The Labors of Hercules Beal; Just Like That; National Book Award finalist Okay for Now; Pay Attention, Carter Jones; Orbiting Jupiter; the Newbery Honor and Printz Honor Book Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy; and the Newbery Honor Book The Wednesday Wars. He is also a contributor to and coeditor, with Leah Henderson, of the acclaimed short story collection A Little Bit Super. He lives in rural Michigan. Ron Koertge is the author of many acclaimed novels for young people, including Stoner & Spaz and Shakespeare Bats Cleanup. A two-time winner of the PEN Award, Ron lives in South Pasadena, California, where he is currently the city's poet laureate.