Building A Better Sandcastle: The Sandcastle that Lola Built by Megan Maynor

Lola's got a little green shovel and plastic pail and a perfect site with a view of the sea, and there's only one thing to do--build a sandcastle. She uses her pail to mold the first small tower. It's perfect, but not tall enough, so she shapes more layers until it towers as high as she can reach.

This is the tall, tall tower
of the sandcastle that Lola built.

She finds the perfect piece of green sea glass to attract mermaids and on tiptoe places it right on top!

But the beach is busy, and boy chasing a Frisbee does a perfect foot-plant right on the base.

"OOPS," says the dude with the Frisbee. "Sorry."

Lola enlists Frisbee Dude to help rebuild, and he gets into the spirit of the thing and builds a thick wall around all the castle towers. But before they can admire their work, a tot with the toy bulldozer beep-beeps right into the wall.

"DIG!" says the little guy. "More?"
"Yes," said Lola. "More!"

Lola gets Little Guy busy digging a deep moat around the wall that Frisbee Dude built, while she beachcombs for decorative shells, where she runs smack into a girl with a whole bucket full of finds.

"Here, you can have some.
I'm bringing them home to Minnesota." the girl said.

Minnesota Girl is soon enlisted to help make a shell road leading to the drawbridge of the castle.

These are the shells
that lead to the moat
that surrounds the wall
that protects the castle
that holds the sea glass
that signals the mermaids from the tall, tall tower.

The sandcastle that Lola, Frisbee Dude, Little Guy, and Minnesota Girl built stands tall and towering, and its creators are proud until--

SPLASH!

With a crashing rogue wave, their sandcastle is gone. Lola is sad--until her new crew comes back, ready to build it back, better than ever.

And they do, as unseen mermaids give each other high fives under the sea before them, in Megan Maynor's utterly charming The Sandcastle That Lola Built (Alfred A. Knopf, 2018). Ever
since poet Robert Louis Stevenson's tot went down to the sea with a wooden spade to "dig the sandy shore," kids have loved to build beside the sea, and Lola is no exception. But she finds that a sandcastle constructed solo can't compare with one done by a crew of specialists, and their project is spectacular--towering turrets, a strong wall, a deep saltwater moat, and an approach paved with seashells, an edifice beside the sea worthy of any mermaid.

Author Maynor follows the familiar cumulative tale form of "The House That Jack Built," with good-natured humor that celebrates joint ventures, and artist Kate Berube's sun-warmed illustrations catch all the joy of those well-remembered childhood beach days. With nostalgia for grown-ups reading this story and with an easy-reading text for youngsters, young beach builders will surely dig this sandy shore story!