Build a Sandcastle

Slip on your flip flops, head to the beach, and have a whale of a good time building a sandcastle! Let this book be your guide, complete with helpful tips from a friendly starfish.

Follow a young girl as she spends a day at the beach. She has packed her shovel and bucket, but she needs some guidance from the friendly creatures of the ocean, specifically a starfish that provides "Five Star Tips".

Each page tells the story of the day as the young girl gets professional tips from her new friend the starfish. These tips include how to find just the right spot on the beach for the perfect foundation and how to utilize tools such as a bucket and shovel for many different jobs. The job soon becomes too big for just the young girl to complete, so she enlists the help of her friend to finish her sandcastle.

Build a Sandcastle is sure to encourage young children to build the perfect sandcastle. This story is complete with lessons on patience, following directions, taking instruction and advice from others, and teamwork to get a project done. These lessons go way beyond building a sandcastle, of course. Educators and parents can take the lessons in this story and apply them to countless life occurrences for their students and children.

Eileen Rajala Meyer is the award-winning author of children's picture books, including The Superlative A. Lincoln: Poems About Our 16th President, illustrated by Dave Szalay. She has many memories of special summer days spent at the beach with her husband and three sons. Their favorite activity? Building sandcastles together, of course! These days, Eileen likes strolling the beach near her home in north Florida.

Born in Ptuj, Slovenia, at first Manica Klenovšek Musil wanted to study piano. But she soon turned her attention to other areas, including architecture. Her first building won the international Grand Prix at the 'Leonardo' competition for young architects in Minsk, 2005. She has also won recognition for her graphic art; her work has been featured on 11 Slovenian stamps. After the birth of first child (of three), she expanded her creativity and began to write stories and poems for little children. Her books can be found in Slovenia, China, Pakistan, Turkey, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Brazil, India, Russia, USA, Croatia, Czech Republic, United Arab Emirats, and South Korea.