A DAY BY THE SEA

While Frido’s owner snoozes by the shore, the adventurous pup secretly explores the beach.

Curious Frido samples both sand and ice cream, surfs, swims, and even takes a dance break. All of this fun in the sun tires out the little pup so that when Frido’s owner wakes up, she’s ready for a swim and Frido’s ready for a nap. Nascimbeni’s illustrations are highly stylized with a limited palette of burnt orange, sage green, and a muted goldenrod. The drawings appear to be rendered in black pen on paper, with color used sparingly and to great effect. The clever use of shapes and lines turns a set of semicircles and circles into a group of crowded beach umbrellas and a lifeguard stand. Some pages include many labeled images, like a scene where Frido takes a dip or a page where Frido’s owner packs for the beach, and sound words (“SPLISH SPLASH,” “SQUISH,” “GRRRR”) appear throughout. While these are sometimes helpful for vocabulary and identification purposes—as with the labeled names of fish—others are a distraction that make the pages unnecessarily busy. Human characters have a wide range of skin tones; Frido’s owner is white-skinned, though her face is never visible. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Unique illustrations create an enticing day at the beach for a mischievous mutt.