I really enjoyed how the author used run on sentences to emphasize a long list of items. For example, the author wrote "Abigail's daddy took an umbrella and a beach chair and a Thermos full of orange juice and three cans of ice-cold soda and a box of cookies and a book." Since he used a run on sentence, readers are able to understand that her father brought a lot of items. This book also uses a large amount of exaggeration to express the imagination that Abigail had while building her castle. For example, the author wrote, "It was going to have the biggest bell in the world. When it was rung, you would be able to hear it halfway to China." Overall, I really enjoyed the creativity put into this book. The central message in this book is imagination.

Summary: Abigail and her father travel to the beach. They both bring things to the beach so they can lay under the umbrella and play in the sand. Abigail begins to build a huge castle in the sand. As people on the beach pass by and talk about knocking down her castle, she threatens them by saying her dad will hurt them. Abigail kept adding more and more to her amazing castle to make it even bigger. In the end, she ends up calling her castle "Xanadu". Abigail and her father agree to come back to the beach tomorrow to build another castle. ( )

Abigail at the Beach
Felix Pirani (1988)
I definitely had mixed feelings about this book after reading it. I liked the book for two different reasons, one of these reasons being the character. Abigail is a very lively and imaginative child. Her personality fits so many children of that age group and they may even be able to relate to her. She says so many funny outrageous things while building her sandcastle on the beach and protecting it. For example, when two boys come and want to kick it down she responds with “You touch my towers, and I’ll get my daddy to hang you both upside down by the heels. He’s in the Mob.” Another reason why I enjoyed this book was the writing style. The author’s humor makes readers want to cheer Abigail along on her quest to defend her castle because she says ridiculous things to the other characters. The one thing I didn’t like about this book were the illustrations. To me, they were very unappealing and dull. They didn’t really enhance the text, and to be honest I didn’t even look at them very much as I was reading the story. I think the “big idea” of the story is that it is important to have an imagination! ( )