The Sandcastle That Lola Built

PreS-Gr 2—While building a sandcastle at the beach, Lola enlists the help of several children playing nearby. Cumulative text describing "the tall, tall, tower of the sandcastle that Lola built," as well as the sea glass on top to signal mermaids, is interrupted when a foot belonging to "dude with a Frisbee" accidentally kicks it. Instead of becoming angry, Lola enlists his help, and he builds a wall. "This is the wall that protects the castle…that Lola and Frisbee Dude built," continues the text, until a toddler with a bulldozer arrives. Lola redirects "Little Guy's" digging to constructing a surrounding moat. Finally, Minnesota Girl adds a seashell path and the masterpiece is complete—when…"CRASH!" a huge wave destroys it. Lola is desolate until her new friends convince her to join them in making a new one. The cartoon illustrations are done in mixed media and collage. The cumulative text continually expands to include each one's contribution to the project. Little Guy's vocabulary appropriately consists of single words. Most scenes are spreads, and some include images of mermaids in clouds and sea. Lola's grief at the castle's destruction before the mermaids even move in is echoed in a scene of the child wrapped in blue hunched over atop blue-hued sand with mermaids floating away in the blue sky.