A Day at the Beach

by Gary D. Schmidt, Ron Koertge

Look Both Ways meets Seedfolks in this masterful novel from two titans of kid lit that follows a diverse cast of young people whose lives intersect in surprising and hilarious ways over the course of a summer day.

Here’s what’s so cool about the beach. Kids are everywhere! Kids you know, kids you want to know. Wandering from one blanket to another, from one family to another. Somebody’s mom reads a fat summer novel. Somebody’s dad snores with an iPad on his chest. Babies cry. Girls laugh. Frisbee players whoop! Kites in the perfect blue sky.  

Some kids bodysurf. Some don’t even like the water. They build sand cities for their friends and sand jails for the grown-ups, and when the tide comes in everything gets washed away. 

There’s the other world, where all kids hear is tomorrow, next week, next year. And then there’s the beach, where everything is right now! 

Why can’t every day be a day at the beach?

From two-time Newbery honoree Gary D. Schmidt and two-time PEN Award winner Ron Koertge comes a moving and often laugh-out-loud funny middle grade novel about family, friendship, and belonging, told by a group of kids spending a day at the beach. Thoughtful vignettes brilliantly weave together an irresistible tale of tween conflict and connections.

Genres: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Short Stories, Audiobook, Fiction, Summer, Young Adult

224 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2025

About the author

Gary D. Schmidt is an American children's writer of nonfiction books and young adult novels, including two Newbery Honor books. He lives on a farm in Alto, Michigan,with his wife and six children, where he splits wood, plants gardens, writes, feeds the wild cats that drop by and wishes that sometimes the sea breeze came that far inland. He is a Professor of English at Calvin College.

Reviews

[Amina · Rating 2 out of 5]

✰ 2.​25 stars ✰​

​

“​When a wind blows, they sway, and when they sway, they do it all together.​ There’s not a storm fierce enough to topple any of them.”​

One might argue that the main reason this did not click with me is because I've never spent A Day at the Beach, so I'll never be able to envision how it is a diverse tapestry of diverse people - young and old, rich and famous - who wish to enjoy the cool waves and sand on a summer day. 🏖️​ It's not a luxury or a privilege I have been yet blessed to experience, so fair, it could have been one of the reasons.​

“In those movies we were talking about, no matter how scary it gets, things work out in the end.”

However, I don't think having it be told from multiple points of views of the various young 'uns who have converged on the beach was the right way to go about it.​ 😕 Even as various paths crossed for surprising and unexpected reasons and moments of enlightenment - a phenomenon. A revelation, it was only mere glimpses into their lives that didn't allow any real emotion or attachment to develop for any of the characters, save for an intersecting story line of a boy who had misplaced his iPhone 16 who was on the desperate prowl searching for it.​ 🔎

The scenes depicted also felt neither heartwarming or hilarious, but rather weighty and heavy-handed. 😮‍💨​ I get the message the writers are conveying how in the course of one day, it builds a sense of community by weaving together a quilt of different people from all corners with their own distinctive unique backgrounds - a chance to forget the worldly woes and homely burdens that makes the beach such a welcome escape. How strangers' paths cross at this beautiful beach, just out of reach and walk away with a life-changing feeling.​ 🏄😎🫂

I get it.​ ✋🏻

“Most of those kids I never see again. But so what? Friends for a day, okay? But still friends.”

But I didn't like reading it. 🙂‍↔️🙂‍↔️🙎🏻‍♀️ The dialogue felt artificial - okay, maybe I'm not a tween now, but it just didn't feel natural. Even the sudden instances - when opposites attract or when a broken heart always knows another broken heart recognizes a friend in need, or solidarity has all the children putting on a brave front, united as one - it didn't feel realistic. Even as each perspective ridiculed their way through a young kid's panic mode for his long lost iPhone, I was not buying whatever these two co-authors were trying to sell.​ 🙅🏻‍♀️

Which is disappointing since I have ​very much​ enjoyed Schmidt's works in the past, but this lacked what makes his works - not relatable, but simply enjoyable. Maybe this is one of those times where maybe this really would only resonate with a kid, rather than​ one reliving her tween years​, for a moment she has never yet experienced. 😔

[Emily McKee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the idea behind this much more than I actually enjoyed reading it. Brief omniscient vignettes of middle school age kids spending the day at the beach show that everyone around us has a life and story as complex as our own. I’d like to read this with my kids, but I don’t see it ever becoming a priority over many other books.

[Tena Edlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun book with many separate short stories, all about a day on the beach. Some of the stories have overlapping elements, but most of them could stand alone. This book had the feel of Seedfolks, which is a book I love to use in 7th grade ELA. I think I could use this book in a similar way, with students analyzing their own story and then sharing out to hear the stories of other people (and animals) who were on the beach at the same time. I especially liked how the kids at the beach had a lot of autonomy and an element of freedom. It gave a timeless feeling of summer that I love (and miss) from growing up.

[Leonard Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read almost all of Schmidt and none of Koertge, so I can only talk about this as a Schmidt book. I liked this better the more I read (which is the only reason this gets to 4 *) but early on I kind of realized that unless Schmidt is going to 11 on his own terms in his own literary universe, his particular, intense magic doesn’t actually really work. It doesn’t really work in vignettes and especially early on, it didn’t feel like he was writing on his own terms, though I have no idea what the actual nature of this collaboration was. The diversity felt forced and though Schmidt doesn’t set his work in the “real” world, this book immediately signals it in a way that also felt forced and un-Schmidtian.

[Molly Grimmius · Rating 4 out of 5]

With no book next to read at Gary Schmidt’s latest book out… along with Ron Koertge whipped through this in a day. This is a really different book than his typical middle grade in thet the only consistent through the story is the location—- beach on New Jersey. We follows new character every single chapter…. Some overlap. There was hard, funny, sweet, and all sorts of everything in between. There were two that I didn’t like that seemed not like Gary in that definitely an anti- God view or religion in general… not like overly but pulled me out to be like goodness sounds like you are trying to make a point… twice.

This would be fantastic to read literally on a beach or a read aloud during the summer.
He is the best.

[Jennifer Mangler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really nice short story collection that captures the feeling of a day at the beach and all that can mean. I absolutely adored some of the stories, and there are a couple I'd like a whole book about. I wanted to know more!

[Glenna Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Day at the Beach is just that--a series of interconnected stories about various people who just happen to be at the beach that day. In just a few pages at a time, readers get a complete cross section of beachgoers from different socioeconomic backgrounds, different ages, different motivations, and different emotions. I loved how the lives of characters intersected in that day--some in more profound ways than others, but all with fascinating insights into private lives made public for just a day.

[Krystal 🦢 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing my mission to read every book Gary D Schmidt has written. This one came out recently and seemed like a perfect summer book. I liked it. It reminded me a bit of Seedfolks but with different themes. There’s not a lot to the plot in the way that you would typically think of plot (that’s not an insult). Rather it’s a series of vignettes about a day at the beach seen through the eyes of different kids. It’s a lot about intentionally being in the moment. Enough good writing and unique characters to keep and hold interest, but in a peaceful kind of passive way. I never felt stressed reading it. But I was very engaged. A warm, friendly book about community and shared space and the interactions of humans on a beach. 👍🏻👍🏻

[Shiloah · Rating 3 out of 5]

More crude than his other books. Also more swearing than I expect for a kid’s book:

[Lillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love this concept for a book with tiny chapters about different characters! Gary’s chapters were so solid. There were some chapters that I personally have different views on and do not agree with. Overall, it was a fun fast read!

[Megan Kaeb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A group of individual vignettes each highlighting the life of one kid,their time on the beach, and their interactions with each other. Each chapter is stand alone but together they weave a lovely look at a day at the beach.

[Carrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This multiple perspective day at the beach allows the reader to glimpse several different lifestyles from an unhoused girl to a boy with a sick dad to a teen pop sensation.

Some of the storylines overlap, though I wish there was more of that, and most of them just kind of end. Because it's Gary D. Schmidt, I kept waiting for a wow moment or something to illuminate a deeper meaning. Also, there’s a cringy chapter praising Neil Gaiman that has not aged well since it was written.

[Regina · Rating 5 out of 5]

In extremely short chapters Schmidt and Koertge explore the lives of regular, and not so regular kids. It is really a braided short story collection in which all the people have only the Rockcastle beach in common. It is a story about all the drama of one day at the beach! The characters are diverse and their problems are, too. Because of the use of beach-science I can see this being an amazing tool for Stem crossover lessons. You have a little bit of beach science or ocean science hidden into fun stories of Middle graders trying to stand up to bullies and accomplishing understandings with parents. In each, vignette you see a kid with a challenge overcome her obstacles.

#ADayattheBeach #NetGalley

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cute collection of short stories with the best summer vibes.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Made up of 28 short vignettes about different kids visiting Rockcastle Beach throughout one day, from dawn until dusk, this book celebrates the pleasure and play and general sense of "here and now" that a day at the beach can bring, but it also captures the real feelings of angst and conflict as well as connection among tweens. I could definitely pick up echoes of the Gary Schmidt writing/characterization that I love in some of them (and it did make me curious about the co-author, Ron Koertge, both to check out his own work, and to wonder about what their co-writing process was for this book), but while I appreciated the broad swath of kids and their cultural/life experience that were packed into just a couple of pages each, and I liked how even though each was quite different as a whole the book gave a vivid picture and feel of the setting of this particular beach, it just never felt like enough to sink my teeth into in terms of story and backstory (this is my complaint with short stories, which I generally don't read, so it might just be a me thing). Also there was maybe some magical realism woven in to a couple of them that I just wasn't sure what to make of. Not my favorite Gary Schmidt, but still enjoyable as a quick, very seasonal read that is mostly breezy like a day at the beach but also shows how tweens experience and handle the duality of seeing the dark parts of the world/human interaction at the same time they see the wonders of the world and connection. I will say that I grabbed it at the library just because of seeing Gary Schmidt's name on the cover, and Hendrik happened upon it at home, sat down with it, and read the whole thing in about 2 sittings, so there's the target demographic vote.
3.5⭐

[Melanie Dulaney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gary D. Schmidt titles always warm my heart and sometimes break it. A Day at the Beach is a collection of vignettes that all occur on a New Jersey beach/boardwalk area on one summer day beginning and ending with a brother/sister running pair. Stories are named after the main character featured, generally a 10-14 yr old, and represent families, best friends, solitary kids, foster and about to be adopted kids, a grieving father and son, a famous entertainer trying to find some normalcy and so many more. All are unique and wonderful, some will leave you with a smile, others will cause you to stop and think and many will prick your heart a bit. Highly recommended for grades 4-8 and while that is a very large spread, there truly is something for all in that age group to enjoy and nothing that should raise any red flags. The text is free of profanity, violence and sexual content and the characters represent a wide variety of skin tones, body types, plus diverse religious and cultural backgrounds.

Highly recommended and with its format of short stories only 5-8 pages in length, all chronologically arranged throughout the day with a few overlaps in storylines, should be approachable for many readers. Would make an excellent read aloud with its natural breaking points between featured young people.

[Diana Strand · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of nearly every Gary D. Schmidt novel I've ever read, but this is a co-authored short story collection. It reminds me of You Are Here or Look Both Ways in that many of the stories are connected, but since there is no central character, there is no character arc or plot development. It's a good collection of stories, but not a must-buy for my middle school classroom library.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

[Lisa Ball · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the concept of the book, and I liked many of the short stories in it, however I am not sure that the book as a whole worked. I'm not sure many of my middle schoolers would "get" it. Trying to keep track of all of the characters - who told their own stories, but then showed up in others' stories was difficult. Also, some of the conversations didn't really ring true. I will say, though, that the stories that were powerful, were really powerful!

[Michaela · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a Gary D. Schmidt book, this is a big disappointment. I felt like I could tell (or I was kidding myself) when he was writing, and when he was definitely NOT writing. This book felt like it was forcing the relatability to younger readers (obsessed with their phones, swearing, LOTS of references to *adult content*) and that lost a lot of the magic of fiction, of connecting to characters, of the story. There were some great vignettes and some completely forgettable. This felt like a very melancholy, sad read. I don’t think kids will feel like this book is speaking to them.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever. Unusual plot structure. Great for budding creative writers to read for inspiration. Poignant. Funny. Goofy. Fully captures the mixed up emotions of those early teenage years. For older middle grade readers. 10+ A day at the beach, morning to night, very similar to my own growing up. Although, now I can appreciate so much better that everyone on that beach has a story that’s interesting and matters.

[Chris G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

It turns out that combining the talents of two strong authors to create a story collection organized around a day at a New Jersey beach is a good idea. Each story is distinct but a few threads run through the whole narrative - a boy who has lost his precious new phone, a brother and sister who are committed to two-a-day workouts. Characters and situations are interesting and relatable. A celebration of summer and the places where people come together. EARC from Edelweiss.

[Deja Roden · Rating 1 out of 5]

0 stars

[Kelsey Bruinwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a typical Gary Schmidt book - I could definitely feel the presence of his co-author - but still a short and fun summer read.

[Elaina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dnf. I’ve read much better by Gary!!!!!! Audiobook returned, can’t remember anything, not motivated to grab again.

[Annie Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Brian Alan S · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is HEAVEN SENT! so REFRESHING! So DIFFERENT! so so DIFFERENT! A collaboration between two-time Newbery Honor Winner Gary D. Schmidt and two-time PEN Award Winner Ron Koertge - A POET! You guys, A POET! HA! That explains why this books is a collection of vignettes - the writing is so DELECTABLE. Delectable as the smooth writing style of Ghost by Jason Reynolds and Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo. Like JASON REYNOLDS AND KATE DICAMILLO! Sheeeesh! the collection is KALEIDOSCOPIC like a pack of M&Ms (not the ones with the peanuts please!) - the stories CRISSCROSS in a very clever manner. MASTERLY CRAFTED. These stories, they speak to your HEART. One of them so HEARTBREAKING, I wondered if a middle grader can take it. TOO PAINFUL! Sheeesh. But the rest? Man oh man, BEAUTIFUL GLIMMERS. GLIMMERS! If you read it too fast, you’ll miss it. You’ll miss the glimmer. You have to read slooooow because each sentence constructed is so SAVORY. Let me say it again. If you read it too fast, you’ll miss it. You’ll miss the glimmer.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Not enough stars to rate this book!

[Melissa Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly delightful and charming read, with each short chapter focusing on someone different at the NJ shore and boardwalk. You get a solid sense of the diversity of lives and experiences of these middle schoolers, yet there is a story arc which ties it all together and makes this easy-to-read novel more about the beach experience itself, rather than individuals.

[Sally Kruger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Authors Gary D. Schmidt and Ron Koertge have teamed up to bring this interesting view of beach life. It begins before the lifeguards have climbed to their viewing platforms, before the beach is even open. Just two lone runners, Jackie and Simon, can be seen up the stretch of sand and water.

As the day unfolds, beach goers arrive and do what all beach visitors usually do. Some are building sandcastles, some are under beach umbrellas reading, some are trying to catch the waves, and some are having family picnics. Each chapter features a different perspective of what folks do when they declare the day a beach day.

Two brothers scour the sand with metal detectors hoping to outdo each other with the treasures they find. Frisbees fly, as a young boy questions everyone about the awesome phone he has managed to lose. He is pretty certain his life will be over if his father finds out about the lost phone.

As the day winds down, parents gather their children along with blankets, umbrellas, and coolers as they head home after a fun day at the beach. The two runners return as the day ends.

[Richie Partington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richie’s Picks: A DAY AT THE BEACH by Gary D. Schmidt and Ron Koertge, HarperCollins/Clarion, April 2025, 224p., ISBN: 978-0-06-338092-9

“This summer I went swimming
This summer I might have drowned
But I held my breath and I kicked my feet
And I moved my arms around
I moved my arms around”
– Loudon Wainwright III “The Swimming Song” (1973)

“Tobias Jackson sprawled on the blanket.
He didn’t care if he got sand all over himself.
He didn’t care that the morning sun would soon start turning him pink.
He was in Triumph Mode.
No. In Conquering Warrior Mode.
No. In some mode even cooler than that.
He lifted his T-shirt from the bottom, felt for just a second the old hesitation, then with a jerk, lifted it up and over his head.
The sun burned onto his chest. And you know what? It felt great. It felt triumphant. It felt like heroic warrioring.
No. It was even cooler than that.
This is what four horrible weeks at Fat Camp and four more horrible weeks under a supervised diet stricter than a Navy SEAL’s regimen and a summer’s worth of gym visits with his dad had given him. From XXX Large to Large. Look at him! My God, look at him! He had the beginnings of a washboard!
And that wasn’t all.
In the back pocket of his trunks, turned to silent mode, he had the new iPhone Infinity Plus. No kidding. The iPhone Infinity Plus. No one had an iPhone Infinity Plus, because it wasn’t out yet. It was only through his father’s amazing connections that one had snuck out of the factory–the reward his parents had promised him for dropping from XXX Large to Large. A prototype in his pocket while everybody else on the planet was just talking about the best phone ever in the entire history of phones and planning to get in line three months from now.
Not even the president of the freaking United States of America had one.”

Are you a beach person? I sure am. Growing up on Long Island (Long ISLAND), one is always within a half-dozen miles of some shoreline or another. I fell in love with the beach at an early age, and have fond memories of long days in the water, of sprawling out on a towel, alongside family and friends. Or of sometimes sitting quietly, all by myself in the dark, bobbing around just offshore in an old wooden rowboat at night.

“Abram Tolland was the best Frisbee player that Booker T. Washington Middle School had ever seen. What he could do with a Frisbee was stuff Mr. F.R. Isbee himself could never have imagined. Abram Tolland could sniff the air once, and his throws would settle on the back of the wind and go forever. Principal Bao–who was no slouch himself at throwing a Frisbee and who had won Booker T. Washington Middle School’s Frisbee Golf Tournament every spring until Abram Tolland showed up in his sixth grade class–could point to any spot on the athletic fields behind the school, and Abram Tolland could settle a Frisbee there from a hundred yards away. ‘On the dime,’ Mr. Bao would say, laughing.”

A DAY AT THE BEACH takes place on the Jersey Shore, near Asbury Park (and Ocean Grove where, according to the old family stories, my great-grandmother maintained a summer place a hundred-and-something years ago).

“If Ruth had Snapchat or FB or TikTok or YouTube or Tumblr or Instagram or any other ‘Gram, she’d say the same thing every time: ‘ONE MORE DAY.’ What she’d mean is this: One more day before I get my phone back.
Ruth steps off the blanket her mother laid out and tugs at it until the corners are perfect. The sand is hot, so Ruth is onto the sand, back onto the blanket, onto the sand, back onto the blanket. Perfect for a TikTok video.
If she had her phone, she’d dance that out in a heartbeat and then post it for Marco and Ben and Jasmin and Carla. Instead, she’s on day six of a seven-day social media fast, thanks to some very low grades in math.
She hasn’t lost a pound on that fast. In fact, she’s probably gained a few, snacking just to keep her hands busy, hands that are usually wrapped lovingly around her phone, that lifeline to the world. Her world. No wonder that kid was asking everybody if they’d seen his phone. Ruth feels totally alone without hers. Abandoned. Forsaken. She kind of wants to lie down and stare out a window at a windswept moor.”

Tobias, Abram, and Ruth. They are just three of the dozens of preadolescents we meet at the Jersey Shore on this lovely summer day. Over a fifteen hour stretch, jogging, swimming, kite flying, sandcastle fabricating, Frisbeeing, acquiring new friends (human and animal), contemplating a washed-up dead whale, and all sorts of other good clean (sandy) fun will be had.

And, yes, there are also a few kids at the beach who are going through some pretty tough stuff.

Given that the book features a great variety of tales starring these dozens of tween characters, A DAY AT THE BEACH initially feels like a collection of short stories. And I’m typically not much of a short story fan. Too often, you just get into a story and then it’s over. You start another one and the same thing happens.

But here, with intertwining threads, with characters making cameo appearances, comically stepping into and out of each other’s chapters, those ends all tie together into a frequently moving and often laugh-aloud read. It makes for the best of both worlds: A knockout tween read from which one can readily pluck, reread, and share individual chapters/stories that are strong and complete enough to stand on their own.

Up for a sunny summer day amidst the dunes? A DAY AT THE BEACH combines young characters and seaside situations into stories you won’t soon forget. But, hey! What else would you hope for when you pair up a couple of old favs, the award-winning, veteran authors of THE WEDNESDAY WARS and STONER & SPAZ.

“And so castles made of sand
Fall in the sea eventually”
– Jimi Hendrix (1967)

So don’t forget to apply your sunscreen regularly. Make sure to stay hydrated. Watch those riptides. Go suck in that good salt air, and join the crowd for A DAY AT THE BEACH.

Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.pbworks.com
https://www.facebook.com/richiespicks/
richiepartington@gmail.com

[Trisha Parsons · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why I chose this book: I chose this book because I love Gary Schmidt and Ron Koertge. They were both faculty in my grad school program, and I enjoyed their humor and writing styles a lot and was excited to read their work together.

Brief summary: This book is from multiple angles from a single day at the beach. Each chapter is a different story from a different beach-goers POV.

What I didn't like about this book: The main thing that I love about Gary Schmidt is that he's an author who knows how to put emotion into a piece. He knows how to make a reader cry and laugh and feel things, none of which I experienced in this book, so I was left feeling disappointed. With each story being from a different POV, it was hard to get attached to any of the characters, and I couldn't find much of a connecting thread between all the stories either. It felt more like a book of distinct, and slightly unfinished short stories than a novel.