Truly one of my favorite books I’ve read this year. I loved the concept of a single place, but multiple perspectives. Every chapter came from a different POV and the fact that the characters flowed into each others stories was amazing. I went through so many emotions getting each person’s life in just a few pages. Great book, highly recommend!

I so enjoyed this book, an assortment of interrelated stories, about various characters spending a day at the beach. This would definitely appeal to middle schoolers, where they will be able to identify with some of the characters or know someone just like them.
It contains all the elements of a satisfying read--fitting in with peers and struggling with modern-day challenges, alongside universal themes of kindness and empathy. Schmidt, along with his c0-author, has created another good one!

Thanks to NetGalley for the free eARC.

This was a bit disappointing. I adore Gary Schmidt, but this just lacked his usual magic. It felt a bit like reading a bunch of outtake chapters from a longer book. I usually really enjoy when a story briefly veers away from the primary narrative and checks in on some side characters. It adds a little extra flavor! But…there isn’t a primary narrative here, so it’s kind of like eating a big bowl of garnishes. Some of the vignettes are fun, some are heartfelt, a couple made me choke up….but at the end I was left thinking “what exactly was this?”

I suppose there’s a bit of a thread in that we begin and end with two siblings (Jackie & Simon) running on the beach, and Tobias does eventually find his phone. But we follow SO many different people in such short chapters that it’s hard to get any narrative footing. If we’d only followed…say 10 different characters, we could recognize as they pop up in one another’s narratives. But we jump around so much that those emotional beats don’t really land, because there are simply too many people to keep track of. It also irked me that there’s no rhyme or reason to the narration style. We have first, second, and third person, and all manner of verb tenses. It’s really distracting.

I think I’d have liked this if the authors had kept it to a smaller number of primary characters - even if it is just a single day. Maybe a quick jaunt with a side character (usually when authors do this, though, there’s a connection. Like you see the main character interact with someone, and then you follow THAT person for a few pages. That strategy would also have been more effective here - again, we seem to just be jumping around).

A fun collection of interlocking stories of kids and their family's day at the beach. Some stories are funny while others are more serious, but they all tie together here and there making for a fun collection leaving you wishing you were at the beach for a day.

I love this! What a magnificent compilation of lives intersecting on a day at the beach.
I can’t put his one on my classroom shelves (3⭐️ for language and some content) but it’s perfect for 9-10 grade.

I liked the idea of a teenage character who has experienced major weight loss and can now, for the first time, confidently enjoy the beach in a new way, opening up a world that was previously unavailable to him. I thought this added nuance and made the book special.

This book is very much for fans of Jason Reynolds "Look Both Ways" - a quick and easy read that focuses on a multitude of different characters spending a day at the beach whose stories sometimes intersect. While I loved the diversity found throughout the book, I do wish some of the stories were a bit longer and more fleshed out. I like that it comes full circle in the first and last chapters with a brother and sister running duo; it felt like a nice conclusion to the beach day.

I can see myself recommending this book to some of my struggling readers in sixth grade, or students who get bored with books easily. I also think individual stories could be pulled for close reading and analysis without needing to worry about missing information from other chapters or sections of the book! There are several stories that allow for some cross-curricular connections as well. Overall, I will be purchasing a copy for my classroom when it comes out and I already have a few plans for it!

A fun and dynamic book that follows a rotating cast of characters during a day at a Jersey Shore beach. I appreciated the diversity of the stories; some were funny, some were sad, some contemplative. I wish there was a little more overlap between stories and characters, but overall this was an enjoyable read that I can see myself recommending to my middle school students.

This really is similar to Seedfolks in that it's snippets of many different people's day at the beach. Characters cross and interact. Some stories are funny, others are poignant, some are sad. I appreciate what the authors did here. It is a good middle grade book, and welcome in a day where books are often VERY long.

This book has has such a fun premise. It is, literally, a day at the beach. You meet a variety of characters and families, witness many different activities, and find interconnection amongst it all. It starts early in the morning with siblings running, training for cross country, along the water's edge. Then throughout the day more and more people find their way to the beach. Some we meet briefly, and others we get to know a little more. Although some characters did have their struggles, the overall feel of the story was a fun day at the beach. It brought summer vibes to this Arctic winter freeze I'm currently experiencing!

I loved this sweet book. I am an eighth grade English teacher, and my students love Gary B. Schmidt books. This seems a bit of a departure, and reads more like a series of interconnected short stories, but the depth of the characters and how much I love them, shines through. I especially loved Simon and Jackie, but that's because they remind me so much of my own children. This is a great book for summer, and I anticipate it will be great on audiobook for road trips. I will be checking it out!

This is a collection of short stories which link to a day at a beach in New Jersey. A perfect summer reading book for Middle School kids grade 6 and up. Schmidt and Koertge capture the energy of a summer beach day and they capture all of the different personalities. We learn the back story of many of the characters and there is a satisfying conclusion.

This was such an interesting read: a connected collection of very short stories about the people who spend their day on a beach in New Jersey, with a small plot line of one beach-goer's missing phone threaded throughout.

Because of the sheer number of characters and a couple plot elements, I think this is better suited as a young adult book than middle grade. But I really enjoyed it, and will almost definitely re-read it sometime. It's the type of book you get more out of the more you read it!

These short chapters always seemed to be ending as soon as I was really invested. Thankfully, the storylines eventually came together for a satisfying ending. Middle grade readers that I serve will like the shorter chapters and will recognize the familiar events the characters faced. A great middle grade read!

I am the world's biggest Gary D. Schmidt fan and will read anything and everything he writes. And while I enjoyed this collection of bite sized short stories, each featuring a kid at the beach and how their stories sometimes intersect and sometimes don't, this wasn't a home run for me. I liked it fine. But didn't love it and didn't feel as connected to it due to the stories being so short.

I do think kids will love it, and it's a great change of pace from a full blown novel. It was fun seeing how some stories built upon others, and how some were standalone.

My favorite was probably the 3 generations of Mikes and the carpentry work they did on the boardwalk every weekend.

A good book to add to a classroom collection! Recommended for ages 8+.

Thank you for the arc! The short chapters and overall short book length is needed in middle grade lit. Fans of You are Here: Connecting Flights will like this novel that features different perspectives of people on a beach over the course of one day. Although the book was a great collection of short stories, the ending felt rushed compared to other books by Schmidt.

Big thanks to Net Galley for the ARC for this wonderful book! Two of our middle school students’ favorite authors team up to create a series of vignettes about all the different people on the beach. At turns, laugh out loud funny and deeply moving, this book is sure to fill the hearts of readers everywhere.

Reading this with my son we loved this book so much. We recently took a trip to the beach so he was able to grab moments in the book and tie them to his memories. It is the perfect read for those who are not able to go to the beach.
This book reminded me of the movies like New years Day and Valentines day where there are so many story lines intermingled into one story. Woven like a beautiful masterpiece made at the beach. Perfection.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to netgalley for the ARC! I’m definitely a fan of this author, so I was happy to snag this one. It’s a nice compilation of a variety of people who are at the beach over a course of a day. There are signs and times updating the progress of the day as it goes along, and there’s a big range of characters whose stories often overlap. While I really enjoyed all these little stories (most were just a few oages) and the characters and relationships in them, I did take off a star because I felt like the stories could’ve overlapped and come together a bit more to make it stronger and more interesting. I also felt like the ending of the book/end of the day could’ve been a better wrap up and fell short a bit. That being said, there were several times as I read that I just thought the book and individual stories were delightful and real and sweet. Overall, it’s one I’d put in the hands of my students for sure as it’s white clean and has some nice messages about humanity and kindness in here.

I love the beach. This book was so descriptive and fun it made me feel like I was at the beach and miss the beach at the same time. What a fun read as we see friends and family make connections as everyone experiences their own fun at the beach.