School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2-The squirrels are back for a fourth entry in Willems's madcap beginning readers series. This time, the main story involves Zoom Squirrel, who is excited to be going to the beach in seven days and spends the week in eager anticipation. However, once at the beach, Zoom Squirrel finds the sand itchy, does not have fun playing beach ball, and gets drenched by a big wave. Despite having a bad day at the beach, Zoom Squirrel is still happy for the great week leading up to the trip. After the beach adventure follows some trivia about the beach, including a link to the Unlimited Squirrels main website, which provides further fun facts. "Emote-acorns," or little expressive acorns depicting various emotions, can be spotted in the corners of several pages throughout, and also are featured in humorous "acorn-y" joke segments. Also included is a comical explanation of the word "anticipation" and a "guessing game" with an amusing twist. The final page provides the music to Zoom Squirrel's "Going to the Beach" song. While jam-packed with puns, zany characters, and information, the book never feels overstuffed. Instead, it encourages multiple rereads to find new, small details that may have been overlooked the first time. As usual, Willems's signature art shines, with comic-style word bubbles and simple and bold cartoon-like character designs that will be both eye-catching and funny to young readers. VERDICT Full of pep and wit, this is another winner.-Laura J. Giunta