To the Beach by Thomas Docherty   (2009)

    When I first saw this book, I was charmed by the illustrations and premise, but hesitant about using it in storytime.  After talking with a couple of other YL's, I decided to give it a try, and I'm glad I did!

    I prepped the kids by reading another book first and asking them to point out all the things in the pictures that the story talked about as we read it, and then afterwards we went back through to point out the things not mentioned in the story but that they found important.  We talked a little about why those things were important to them (mostly because it related to something they had done themselves or had seen in another story or movie).  I also told them that for To the Beach I wouldn’t be telling much of the story, so they would have to do the work by looking closely at the pictures and figuring out what would happen next.  With some cue questions to get them started on the first few pages, they caught on quickly and really got into figuring out the story, coming up with reasons why the various objects were important for getting to (and from) the beach.  I told the adults, "Keeping quiet and letting the kids figure out what is happening from the images is hard sometimes, but it's a great way to help them figure out how to tell a story - which we call Narrative Skills!"

- Natasha Forrester