Ten years ago, my family took a trip to Ocean City, Maryland. There were
several activities on our itinerary, but one, naturally, was to hit up
the beach. This was an exciting prospect. But I’ll admit that I, a
longtime resident of a town boasting several freshwater beaches, was
nervous about jellyfish. That’s also a big concern for Scaredy in
Melanie Watt’s Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach. But that’s not all he’s worried about.
No, as in every installment of Watt’s quirky series, Scaredy has a
whole list of animals to avoid. Naturally, as a squirrel in a world of
predators, he has reason to be a little nervous. But the creatures and
objects that really concern him aren’t what one might expect. Scaredy
doesn’t want to go to the beach because he doesn’t want to have to deal
with seagulls, pirates, lobsters, sea monsters or coconuts. Scaredy,
with all of those big white teeth, comes across as just as
startling-looking as any of those he fears.
Still, he knows
what he wants to stay away from, so instead of heading for the shore, he
creates his own little beach in the front yard. Perfect! Except his
personal beach lacks the sound of the ocean, so drastic measures are
called for. Scaredy concocts a plan to get to the beach, snag a
magnificent noise-making seashell and high-tail it home. But as usual,
something comes along to disturb his careful plot and prevent its ideal
execution...
Watt’s Scaredy Squirrel books are fairly
formulaic. They begin with a practical warning to the reader, not so
much for the reading of this book but in general. Here, it’s the
well-worn advice to wear sunscreen.
Watt then gets into Scaredy’s predicament, illustrating his
difficulties with pages full of silly lists and punctuating the story
with overly complicated battle plans concocted by Scaredy as he prepares
to face one of his great fears.
In this book, Scaredy is
proactive. He is not forced to go to the beach; he simply decides that
his own beach scene is incomplete. The initiative he shows here makes
this the bravest of his adventures. Nonetheless, that doesn’t stop him
from panicking when his intricate plan for retrieving the shell is
hampered by the presence of humans. This is the only book in the series
so far to include people, and it’s fun to see how Scaredy deals with
that intrusion.
Scaredy strikes me as especially creative
here. Building a beach in your front yard seems like a really fun idea,
and he even includes instructions on how to do it. Kids reading might
want to give it a shot themselves, though they will probably want to
alter the design a bit according to their tastes. Meanwhile, his plans
for keeping the unsavory crowds away are a hoot; I’m especially amused
by his notion that a camera will act as sea monster repellant.
While Scaredy still has some ridiculously neurotic ideas in this book,
he comes out of his shell more here than in any other installment. Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach is a terrific trip for all involved.
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