(We're Going to Build a Dam) [By: Gillian McClure] [Mar, 2013]

by Gillian McClure

Two boys and a dog find a place where the stream meets the sea. Can they build a dam to hold back the water? There are stones and driftwood and seaweed - is it enough to stop the stream?

Paperback

First published March 1, 2013

About the author

Gillian McClure’s career as an author and illustrator spans four decades. She has been Highly Commended in the Kate Greenaway Medal and won the US Parent's Guide to Children's Media Award for Outstanding Achievement in Children's Books. Her books have been translated into many different languages.
Gillian has served on the CWIG committee, the Public Lending Right Advisory Committee, served as a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at the universities of Kent and Essex, and has mentored emerging authors on the Escalator scheme. From 2010 - 2016 she also ran her own publishing company, Plaister Press, to celebrate the art of the picture book.

Reviews

[Mathew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lovely celebration of a childhood that involves the impossible task of holding back the tide. Two boys head down to the beach in the hope of creating a dam to stop the sea. Illustrated in watercolour and wax crayon with ink lines, McClure's poetry and imagery captures the moments of celebration, delight and panic that come with building and competing against an unstoppable force. The typography and illustrations play well with each other and I can see how this was nominated for both the UKLA and Kate Greenway awards when it first was published.

[Abigail Mason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Links to beaches: sand dunes, streams, the sea, activities that children do at the beach, what you could find at a beach
Discusses dams: what to build them out of, how to build it and what it does