Surf’s Up | by Kwame Alexander

Surf’s Up by Kwame Alexander

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Surf’s Up is a delightful story about two friends, Bro and Dude, who have totally different ideas about how to have fun one sunny day at the beach. Dude wanted to surf while Bro wanted to enjoy his book but neither of them anticipated the adventure they would have when their bike hits a bump; crash-landing them into the middle of the story! Together they learn what it means to get caught up in good book.

Here’s what I really liked about this book:

• The homage to old school library book check out with the stamped due date card showing that both Bro and Dude read the book.
• The surfer terms that gave me a chance to say words like: Cowabunga, Dude, and Booyah!
• The fact that Bro’s excitement for reading rubbed off on Dude. We talk often in the library about sharing with others about the books you read and enjoy.
• That the text colors match the color of each frog. This helps my independent readers understand who’s saying what in the story.
• That this book shows kids what an adventure reading can be when you get caught up in the story.

I didn’t discover this picture book by Kwame Alexander (illustrated by Daniel Miyares) until the end of last school year (2017) so I’m going to tell you that this made a great end of the school year read as I encouraged my students to have fun reading over the summer. Now, as we enter into a new school year, I’ll get to use it anew as an awesome back to school read when we discuss the reading we did over the summer.

I would recommend this book for all of K-3 because I know they will love it but it also makes for a great read aloud for K-5.

Book Trailer from Scholastic:

Author Links:

Surf’s Up

Kwame Alexander

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