Beaches, Boats, and Birds: A Lake Michigan Alphabet Book By Julie Dickerson, Illustrated by Rhonda McKinnon

Review by Deborah K. Frontiera

Cover of the book "Beaches, Boats, and Birds: A Lake Michigan Alphabet Book" by Julie Dickerson, illustrated by Rhonda McKinnon. The illustration shows a woman and a child sitting on a sandy dune, overlooking the sea with gentle waves.This wonderful adventure of a day at the beach, told through the letters of the alphabet, not only involves words beginning with each letter but exposes children to a lot of natural science and wonder about the world around them. It even includes bits of history. I liked the fact that words beginning with each letter aren’t the “usual” ones, and the idea that alphabet books don’t have to be centered on nouns. For example Caspian tern, Huron tansy, Juniper, Ocean-size (for the hugeness of Lake Michigan) Quarries, and Yellow Lady Slipper. These educate children about specific types of birds and flowers.

The illustrations add to learning as well. Those rare flowers are accurately painted, as well as all the trees, rocks, and the transparent shape of the voyageurs canoe, a past that is present even today. Best of all are the children, who are always engaged in their surroundings: looking, running, playing, building sandcastles, listening, always active. That is how children remember the most. There is plenty to talk about with children while reading the book to them. And places for children to respond: I’ve don’t that! Can we go there? I have a shell collection. I like pretty rocks. …

The softness of the watercolor paintings still allows for the sharpness of detail in blades of grass and tips of needles on the evergreens, levels of shadow and shades in the sand dunes, blues, greens and whites of waves on the shore, sharpness of the tips of an eagle’s wings. The artist makes a reader and looker feel as though they are right there on the beach.

The author also includes facts about all the Great Lakes, how they were named, a way to remember the names of the Great Lakes and even an art project with driftwood. As I retired kindergarten teacher, I could also see a way to engage children in thinking and developing a list of things in their own surroundings—whether urban or rural—and creating their own alphabet books. Even older kids could be involved in such a project looking for the names of trees, plants, rocks, street names and historical sites near where they live, and action words to fill in one or more for every letter.

No matter what your age, don’t miss Beaches, Boats, and Birds.


ISBN 978-1-961302-45-7, LCCN 2024907216 Mission Point Press, 2024, children’s picture book, hard cover, Ret. $22.95, (Amazon $20.87), paperback, $16.95

 

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