A family races down onto the sand with buckets and spades.

“Let’s build a seawall!

Tide’s coming in.

We’ll take on the sea

and see if we can win!” 

Digging, finding, scooping sand, two girls begin to make a wall out of sand. Bits of driftwood poke out of it, and 15 shells that have been collected, grace the ever growing wall facing the waves.

They hide behind it as a wave approaches, and when it leaves, it takes some of their shells!

There’s a mad dash to build the wall up again with sand, pat it down and add more.

But the waves are greedy, and again they whoosh in and take more shells!

This book is full of summer fun, impeccable rhyme and a counting game. Building sandcastles and having the sea sneak in and snatch it away is a common and much-loved part of a kiwi kid’s childhood.

The illustrations are full of movement, and the excitement of a day on the beach bursts off the page. There’s a couple of beach friends to spot among the page spreads too.

Sand-Play Time on the Sun-Baked Beach is fun to read, great for learning subtraction, and a mirror to all our memories of Aotearoa’s sandy, sunny beaches.

Loved the ending!

Author – Juliette MacIver

Illustrator – Lily Uivel

Picture Book

(2026, Scholastic NZ, Aotearoa New Zealand, Beach, Counting, Numbers, Sand, Seawall, Excitement, Buckets and Spades, Sandcastle, Shells, Rhyme)