This touching story by Laura Atkins discusses the struggles of moving back and forth to spend time with your parents, adapting to the change every time, and missing your parents when you go back. The story deals with these themes beautifully and gently. As the main character, Rowan leads the story wonderfully and keeps you engaged. I especially loved how he makes choices on his own and invites his Dad to do things with him.

The illustrations by Evgenia Penman are gorgeous, soft, and so soothing to look at! The art had me go back and forth to look at all the details, textures, lovely expressions and beautiful colors. A very pretty book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A story about a boy whose parents are separated, so he must split his time going back and forth between the two. One day, his dad takes him to the beach and he loves it so much to bring some of that love back home with him.

This is the sensory joy of summer bottled into a story—with textured, sandy illustrations that make you want to dig your toes in the page. A beautiful reminder that memories are the best souvenirs of all.

In Bringing the Beach Home, we travel with Rowan, a young boy caught in his parents' separation. He is tired of the back and forth between his homes and feels he is always driving around. His dad surprises him with a trip to the beach. At first, Rowan isn't a big fan, but with patience and gentle encouragement from his dad, he relaxes and finds peace in the water. After a lovely day, he uses his souvenirs (shells, rocks, and a driftwood stick) to make a wind chime, which brings that sense of peace home with him. I really like this story, as someone who also feels most at home on a beach. It also did a wonderful job of portraying an accurate preschooler and his big feelings. The art is gentle and peaceful, matching the story well.
At the end of the story there is a page dedicated to "crafting with our feelings", including suggested materials, tips, and reassurances in case it doesn't turn out the way you want. They also specified to make sure that you take materials from nature in a respectful way that does not cause harm, something that can often be forgotten.

A lovely book about navigating feelings about things we can’t control. The beach is used as an example of how something’s in life require us to “go with the flow” . The last few pages highlight how crafting can help us process our feelings. Illustrations were beautiful I especially love the colors used.

Laura Atkins writes a sweet children's picture book about a young boy named Rowan and his amazing time spent at the beach with his father. Like many other normal children his age, Rowan can probably be found to have moments when his frustration grows beyond what his reasoning allows him to control. Rowan is a child who is caught between his parents' separation, and he is required to move back and forth between their homes as they each want to spend time with their precious darling son. Sometimes this moving back and forth can become overwhelming as Rowan most reasonably wants his parents back together like other children's parents are discovered to be.

When Rowan spends time at the beach with his father, Rowan learns the wonder of the sea and birds and wind and sand. Sometimes the greatest lesson nature can teach is the value of patience and simply listening to the quiet and serenity. After a remarkable day of doing nothing more than spending their entire day together enjoying each other's company and the beauty of the natural environment around them, Rowan and his father learn that being together is the greatest gift they can exchange.

Following their day spent at the beach, Rowan and his father build a wonderful wind chime out of the materials they carried home with them-- seashells and a twig. they are content with listening to the gentle lullaby of the breeze and have learned to accept the tranquility of nature's quiet moments.

A wonderful addition to any child's library, this beautifully illustrated book will certainly bring smiles to faces as it is read whether as a family unit, during play time, or with a classroom or library filled with young readers with growing imaginations.

I thought this book was very cute! The creativeness from this book could be used in the real world and gives a great craft idea for your next beach trip! It was a delicate touch on divorced parents and the challenges children face when having two homes.

Bringing the Beach Home was a sweet, well illustrated read about connecting with and appreciating nature and navigating big emotions when splitting time between separated parents. I also appreciated the e example of creativity presented by the characters and the creativity tips provided at the end of the book. Overall a cute read.

"Still feeling the hug from the beach" 🌊

This was really cute and illustrated well. Some of the text was difficult to read because it was white on some really light-colored backgrounds, but other than that it was a sweet story!

I loved this book! The author tackles topics revolving around big feelings for littles and does it well! I especially loved how Rowan was spending time with his father and that they find a way to make their time together special but also simple. The author also highlighted to using creativity to create memories which I loved as well. Overall a great read and I know my kids would love it!