Book-A-Day 18: A Beach Tail

A Beach Tail

Written by: Karen Lynn Williams

Illustrated by: Floyd Cooper

This is an endearing book about a young African-American boy and his father spending a day at the beach when imagination comes into play.  The young boy, Gregory draws a lion on the sand with a stick and proceeds to make the lions tail longer and longer as he walks down the beach coming across various items along the way.  With each encounter the lion's tail gets longer and longer as he maneuvers around each newfound discovery. He  takes it "up and over and down" the mound of an old sandcastle, around a purple jellyfish, and zigs and zags it around a horseshoe crab.  When he realizes how far he has adventured down the beach he realizes he can follow the lion's tail that he created to find his way back to his father resting under the blue beach umbrella. 

This is another perfect example of a book that could serve as a mentor text when exploring small moments in writing.  The author stretched one small experience with Gregory over the course of an entire story.  Pair this with The Snow Day by Ezra Jack Keats for a small moments comparison between a day at the beach and a day in the snow.  How do the characters Peter and Gregory differ from one another?  What about their experience is the same?  This story also has a few repetitive phrases that echo throughout including "Swish - Swoosh" (the sound of the waves) and "Sandy's tail got longer until....." In the beginning his father gives him a warning to not go in the water and to not leave Sandy the Lion.  As he stretches the lion's tail longer and longer the phrase, "But Gregory did not go in the water, and he did not leave Sandy" repeats as he discovers new items along his walk.  How could students create a phrase that might repeat throughout their own small moment stories? This book could also be used to illustrate the use of prepositional words.  Under, around, over, and through are all used as Gregory drags his stick through the sand.   Finally, this could simply be shared as a read aloud to students before leaving for summer break.  What a perfect book to get them in the mood for a trip to the beach!

Karen Lynn Williams is the author of this book and you can learn more about her by visiting her website.  Floyd Cooper is an award-winning and celebrated African-American illustrator. You can learn more about him through this interview.