Zoom Squirrel is thrilled to bit about an upcoming trip to the beach, with a daily countdown, 'going-to-the-beach' song, and beach dance building up the excitement. However, in the eleventh hour, Zoom realizes that they have never been to a beach before and don't know what they'll do when they get there. Can the other squirrels help out?

This was a cute and humorous read. I really love how much of it had to do with emotional intelligence. The squirrels apologizing to Zoom after the less-than-successful beach trip was a nice touch, but even more so was Zoom's ability to see the bright side of everything -- that the build-up was fun even if the day itself was a letdown. Throughout the beach day story, "emote-acorns," small illustrations of acorns with various facial expressions, were included at the bottom of some pages to represent how the squirrels were feeling at that moment. There is a table of these at the front of the book labeling which emotion they represent, although it is fairly obvious.

After the main story, the book continues with several other segments, including "acorn-y" jokes and facts about the beach touching on elements such as sand, waves, and seashells. I really enjoyed the "Research Rodent" section that ultimately defined the word "anticipation" by having the squirrels build up their excitement about finding out the word's meaning. The humor was so palpable for me as an adult, and children will at the very least have a new word in their vocabulary, even if they don't get the joke right away.

Speaking of vocabulary, the main story uses a relatively limited set of words, with many phrases repeated, particularly as it is basically all in dialogue bubbles. It is ideal for a beginning reader who is ready to move on past the simplest of texts but not really proficient in reading independently just yet. An adult can then help with reading aloud the backmatter chock-full of information. ( )

L read herself.