Sand and Surf Time! Otter: Let's Go Swimming! by Sam Garton

"I am so excited!

I will learn to swim in the sea!

Otter Keeper has the beach bag piled full of gear--masks, flippers, snorkels, shovel and pail, and beach umbrella--and Otter has... Teddy and Giraffe.

Otter has never seen the sea!

She spots the dolphins playing off shore, and she's keen to join them. That is, until she gets a little closer to the breaking waves.

"ooooOOOOO!"

Otter Keeper jumps right in with a big splash and demonstrates his strokes. Now it's Otter's turn.

Or not. Otter backs out.

"I can't go swimming now!" says Otter.

"Giraffe is scared of fish!"

Otter gets Giraffe busy building a sand castle.

Otter Keeper declares that fish are no danger to Giraffe. But then Otter insists that Teddy hates getting wet, so both of them must stay on the shore and play with the beach ball.

Otto Keeper reassures Otter that getting wet is part of the fun. Otter hides her head inside her new sand pail and finally tells the truth.

"I am scared of the sea!"Otter admits.

But Otter soon sees that no one else is staying high and dry.

"Everyone is having fun without me!"

Alone is no fun, and Otter lets Otter Keeper hold her hand for her first splash into the waves, and when it's time to go home, she's having too fun to stop. For youngsters just putting a toe in the water and into their first dip into read-alone books, Sam Garton's latest I-Can-Read story, Otter: Let's Go Swimming! (My First I Can Read) (Balzer And Bray/Harper, 2017) is just in time for a summer beach read. Otter is as adorable as ever as she takes to the water like an otter oughta, and Garton's text offers easy-going beach-related vocabulary with ample visual cues from his sunny and charming illustrations.

For little beach-o-phobes who fear getting in the swim, pair this one with David Soman's Ladybug Girl at the Beach (see review here).