A Day at the Beach: A Hilarious Middle Grade Story About Tween Friendship and Belonging for Kids (Ages 8-12)

A Day at the Beach: A Hilarious Middle Grade Story About Tween Friendship and Belonging for Kids (Ages 8-12)

Look Both Ways meets Seedfolks in this masterful novel that follows a diverse cast of young people whose lives intersect in surprising and hilarious ways over the course of a summer day. From two-time Newbery honoree Gary D. Schmidt and two-time PEN Award winner Ron Koertge comes a moving and often laugh-out-loud funny middle grade novel about family, friendship, and belonging, told by a group of kids spending a day at the beach. Here’s what’s so cool about the beach. Kids are everywhere! Kids you know, kids you want to know. Wandering from one blanket to another, from one family to another. Somebody’s mom reads a fat summer novel. Somebody’s dad snores with an iPad on his chest. Babies cry. Girls laugh. Frisbee players whoop! Kites in the perfect blue sky. Some kids bodysurf. Some don’t even like the water. They build sand cities for their friends and sand jails for the grown-ups, and when the tide comes in everything gets washed away. There’s the other world, where all kids hear is tomorrow, next week, next year. And then there’s the beach, where everything is right now ! Why can’t every day be a day at the beach? Thoughtful vignettes brilliantly weave together an irresistible tale of tween conflict and connections. Summer Reads 2025 - Publishers Weekly Most Anticipated Middle Grade Reads of 2025 - School Library Journal "A sandy slice-of-life treat, rich in feeling and insight."  - Kirkus Reviews "A lovely book to read while under an umbrella, people watching on a lazy afternoon laying on the beach." - Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books "The array of stories asks the reader to laugh, worry, and love while also providing a realized community that invites them in. Heart-wrenching and robust." - Booklist "This multi-viewpoint narrative highlighting tween interactions among family and friends will be enjoyed by many readers."  - School Library Journal Gary D. Schmidt is the bestselling author of The Labors of Hercules Beal ; Just Like That ; National Book Award finalist Okay for Now ; Pay Attention, Carter Jones ; Orbiting Jupiter ; the Newbery Honor and Printz Honor Book Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy ; and the Newbery Honor Book The Wednesday Wars . He is also coauthor, with Ron Koertge, of Styx and Stones. He lives in rural Michigan. Ron Koertge is the author of many acclaimed novels for young people, including Stoner & Spaz and Shakespeare Bats Cleanup , and most recently is coauthor, with Gary D. Schmidt, of Styx and Stones . A two-time winner of the PEN Award, Ron lives in South Pasadena, California, where he is currently the city’s poet laureate.