PPBF – The Squish

We’re still at the beach, this time with a sandcastle in this Perfect Picture Book. Grab a shovel, and let’s go!

Title: The Squish

Written & Illustrated By: Breanna Carzoo

Publisher/Date: Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers/2024

Suitable for Ages: 4-8

Themes/Topics: sandcastles, resilience, humor, strength, size, friendship

Opening:

Hello, World! Here I am!

Brief Synopsis: Told from the point-of-view of a sandcastle, The Squish explores resilience in the face of multiple setbacks.

Links to Resources:

• The main character is a sandcastle. What do you think it would feel like to be a sandcastle, constantly buffeted by waves, stepped on, and knocked over? Have you ever felt overwhelmed or knocked over? What did you do when you felt that way?
• Head to the beach and build a sandcastle;
• Design your own sandcastle on paper using shapes found on the activity page.

Why I Like this Book:

Like sandcastles, young children face obstacles and challenges. Even adults sometimes feel as if problems are gaining power and washing over us, like a wave. Or that others are stomping on us. If only we were bigger or taller or stronger.

As adults, we’ve learned to navigate the trials life throws at us, to pick ourselves up, and to go on. But for younger kids, size and strength may seem like the only solutions. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to grow immediately. Hence, frustration and, too often, tantrums.

Carzoo and the perceptive sandcastle show readers another method of overcoming obstacles – working together. I love how the narrating sandcastle acknowledges that “it’s impossible to stop all the squishes.” And they know “we can’t just get over what happened to us”. But by picking themselves up and sticking together, they’ll “weather everything life throws at us”. What a wonderful affirmation of the power of friendship!

Carzoo’s illustrations make the sandcastles look so life-like and help kids relate to them. Using sand from a beach she played on as a child, used grocery bags, and painted cut paper collage, she’s fashioned a character and world that readers will long to visit again and again.

A Note about Craft:

Carzoo is a master of crafting stories from the point-of-view of inanimate objects. Like Lou, the fire hydrant in her debut as author/illustrator, the sandcastle in The Squish is an underdog – buffeted by forces beyond their control. Just like what happens to toddlers and other young kids.

This Perfect Picture Book entry is being added to Susanna Hill’s Perfect Picture Book list. Check out the other great picture books featured there!