The Boy on the Beach - Softcover

Daly, Niki

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747546843 ISBN 13: 9780747546849

Publisher: TRAFALGAR SQUARE +, 2004

Synopsis

It's a scorching hot day so Joe and his parents take a trip to the seaside. Joe runs about in the sand, jumps the odd wave, and finds a deserted old boat to play on. But when he falls from the boat after playing a little too zealously, Joe feels very alone and lost. After he cries out for help a lifeguard comes along to take Joe back to where his parents are waiting and very pleased to see him safe and sound. This is a very reassuring story illustrated beautifully in watercolour, which brings fully to life the smells and sounds and textures of a family outing by the sea.

About this title

About the Author:

Niki Daly won a British Arts Council Illustration Award for The Little Girl Who Lived Down the Road (his first published work) in 1978. Since then he has illustrated many stories of his own as well as those of other writers. This is one of two books Niki has published with Bloomsbury. Old Bob's Brown Bear (Bloomsbury) won an IBBY Honours Award for Illustration and also the New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year 1995. He lives in Mowbray, South Africa, with his wife, Jude Daly, an illustrator.

From Publishers Weekly:

Daly (Jamela's Dress, reviewed below) summons the sights and sounds of a summertime outing through sun-washed watercolors and keenly tuned language. A boy and his parents arrive at the shore, where it's "hot as sun-melted tar in the beach parking lot," and soon little Joe is frolicking happily in the sand and water. Venturing beyond the high dunes, he loses sight of his parents and panics, but a lifeguard finds him and carries him piggyback to the Lost and Found, where his mother and father await. The prose is packed with descriptions that appeal to the senses, from a lifeguard "cool as a coke and copper-tanned" to sand dunes that "rise like monster waves," and slips easily into casual rhyme (e.g., "Sandy toes... sun-cream nose... camera smileAclick! And off he goes..."; "castle bashing, sea-pool splashing, surf crashingAwet, wet, wet..."). The spreads sprawl like a beach towel, with generous white space that mimics the bright sunshine of a peak summer day. Daly maintains a rigorous visual pace by varying broad vistas of busy seashore activity with close-ups, such as Joe "kangaroo jumping" down the shore. He perfectly represents the sheer glee that blossoms at the prospect of a fun-filled day of sun, sand and surf. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: TRAFALGAR SQUARE +
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0747546843
• ISBN 13: 9780747546849
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32