A Day at the Beach

Late­ly, I find myself beguiled by short sto­ry col­lec­tions. I have always been some­one who enjoys a long book. What’s hap­pen­ing? Per­haps it’s our frac­tured world or my atten­tion span or the need to seek out sat­is­fy­ing res­o­lu­tions … but the last few books I’ve read have been short sto­ries or stand­alone chap­ters or small vignettes and I’m savor­ing them. Appar­ent­ly I can change, even after a long life­time of reading.

This book, by two mas­ter writ­ers, Gary D. Schmidt and Ron Koertge, often found me hold­ing my breath. When peo­ple write togeth­er, I want to know who wrote what. How did they divide up the writ­ing? Did they have a say over the oth­er person’s words and ideas?

Hard to tell in this book. There are many, many voic­es telling their sto­ries and they all feel distinct.

We begin our one day at the beach with Jack­ie and Simon, broth­er and sis­ter who are run­ning twice a day on Rock­cas­tle Beach (IYKYK), hop­ing to claim a place on their high school and mid­dle school cross-coun­try teams. There’s no dia­logue, they’re run­ning and sprint­ing, but it lets the authors intro­duce us to the sights and sounds and smells of the beach.

In the next chap­ter, we meet Tobias Jack­son, who is learn­ing to be com­fort­able with his new body. Recent­ly returned from a health camp, where he dropped enough weight to go from XXX Large to Large, he is rev­el­ing in his promised reward, an iPhone Infin­i­ty Plus, a not-yet-avail­able-to-the-pub­lic phone. His dad’s con­nec­tions brought the phone to him and he’s very excit­ed. Until the phone goes miss­ing on the beach.

Through­out the book, we expe­ri­ence the lives of 26 dif­fer­ent char­ac­ters, all young teens, and their fam­i­lies and friends and pets and new acquain­tances. Each chap­ter is short but, because Schmidt and Koertge are good at this writ­ing thing, we are drawn into their stories.

Ral­phy Steg­nar is com­pet­ing against his twin broth­er Rex to find the coolest trea­sure with their met­al detec­tion devices. He’s delight­ed by the dis­cov­ery of a Swiss army knife until he finds some­thing amaz­ing, some­thing even Rex can’t top as they let their dad be the judge.

Ramon! Cor­zo is a rock star (real­ly) who is doing his best to have a nor­mal day with­out being recognized.

There’s Mike Romeo IV who craves his Sat­ur­days at the beach with his dad and his grand­fa­ther, Mike 3 and Mike 2. Start­ing with Mike 1, his great-grand­fa­ther who is no longer alive, these guys repair the board­walk, vol­un­teer­ing, using scrap lum­ber. You just know that Mike 4 is learn­ing a trade and enjoy­ing the cama­raderie of doing a job well.

Car­la Scalapino is part of a large fam­i­ly. She and her sib­lings devise the Cir­cus Max­imus, an impromp­tu jug­gling, tum­bling, and mag­ic act that has peo­ple toss­ing coins into a fedo­ra on the sand. Her mom insists they take five-year-old Alfie with them. Car­la is ticked. What will he do? His skill turns out to be jaw-drop­ping and peo­ple clam­or for Alfie to let them be next.

Will Tobias find his phone? Will Jack­ie and Simon be back for their sec­ond run of the day?

Some of the kids inter­act with each oth­er. Some don’t. Some get wet in the water. Some are not thrilled to be there. Some final­ly feel alive. Some feel seen.

The way these sto­ries are woven togeth­er, their place­ment in the nar­ra­tive, the crys­tal-clear char­ac­ter­i­za­tions, the emo­tions I felt while read­ing … I feel stunned. I don’t believe I’ve ever read a book like this. It’s fine­ly craft­ed, mes­mer­iz­ing to read.

I’ve nev­er been to a beach. This makes me curi­ous enough to pack up a blan­ket, an umbrel­la, and some sun­screen. I want to meet peo­ple like these.