It may not be beach weather where you’re at (YET!), but it’s never too early to “think Summer” and think about who, or what, you’ll bring to your favorite beach.
Bitty Bot’s Big Beach Getaway
Author: Tim McCanna
Illustrator: Tad Carpenter
Publisher/Date: Paula Wiseman Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)/2018
Ages: 3-7
Themes: robots; making friends; innovation; beach; rhyming
Short Synopsis (from Goodreads):
The world’s cutest robot goes on a rhyming, deep-sea adventure with two new friends in this sweet and silly companion to Bitty Bot.
Fish and coral. Crabs and snails.
Stingrays, turtles, sharks, and whales.
Giant squid! A sunken ship!
“Now we’re talking. What a trip!”
Bitty Bot is back—and he is not excited about his family vacation to Botco Bay. Luckily, new friends make everything better. Bitty Bot and his new pals build a submarine using supplies they find at the beach:
Bottles, barrels, buggy, bench,
hammer, pliers, socket wrench,
soda cans, a coil of rope,
drainpipe for a periscope.
Off they go on an underwater adventure!
Read a review at Kirkus Reviews.
How to Code a Sandcastle
Author: Josh Funk
Illustrator: Sara Palacios
Publisher/Date: Viking, Penguin Young Readers (an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC)/2018
Ages: 4-8
Themes: coding; robots; sand castles; beach; STEM
Short Synopsis (from Goodreads):
From the computer science nonprofit Girls Who Code comes this lively and funny story introducing kids to computer coding concepts.
Pearl and her trusty rust-proof robot, Pascal, need to build a sandcastle before summer vacation is over, and they’re going to do it using code. Pearl breaks the big we-need-a-sandcastle problem into smaller steps, then uses conditionals, loops, and other basic coding concepts to tell Pascal exactly what to do. But building a sandcastle isn’t as easy as it sounds when surfboards, mischievous dogs, and coding mishaps get in the way! Just when it looks like the sandcastle might never work, Pearl uses her coding skills to save the day and create something even better: a gorgeous sandcastle kingdom!
Read a review at Biracial Bookworms.
I paired these books because it’s not every day that you see a robot at the beach! Written in quick-paced rhyme, Bitty Bot’s Big Beach Getaway features a bored robot who uses his skills to build a submarine with friends. In How to Code a Sandcastle Pearl brings her “trusty rust-proof robot, Pascal” to the beach and codes him to build a sandcastle. Written by software engineer/picture book author Funk and filled with coding how-to information (including a terrific Guide to Coding), How to Code a Sandcastle is a Girls who Code Book with a Foreword by Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code. Both books involve problem solving, and both are humorous read-alouds.
Looking for similar reads?
See Tim McCanna’s Bitty Bot and Josh Funk’s Albie Newton.
Wander, Ponder, Write 
These two are a perfect, unlikely pairing, Patricia.
Thanks, Dee. I couldn’t resist the notion of two robots on the beach – could you imagine all of the sand in the motors?
I think they are an excellent pairing for children. They could lead to some interesting discussions in the classroom.