Surf's Up

Add to Wishlist

Surf's Up

Board Book

$7.95

View All Available Formats & Editions

Board Book
$7.95

View All Available Formats & Editions

SHIP THIS ITEM

Qualifies for Free Shipping
PICK UP IN STORE

Your local store may have stock of this item.

Available within 2 business hours

Want it Today?
Check Store Availability

Related collections and offers

Overview

It’s a wild ride on the sea of imagination, and a rousing high-five to the power of reading.
–Publishers Weekly, starred review

Surf’s up, Bro! Not yet, Dude. Books are boring. Not this one!

Newbery Award Winner Kwame Alexander's bouncy ode to the joy of reading.

Bro and Dude have very different ideas about how to spend a day at the beach. But as Bro continues to gasp and cheer while he reads his book (Moby Dick), Dude can’t help getting pulled in—literally. Before you can shout “Surf’s up!” both frogs are sharing the same adventure— that is, until they get to the beach. Newbery Medalist Kwame Alexander and illustrator Daniel Miyares join forces to give readers a wild ride, celebrating the joys of summer and reading.

Product Details
About the Author

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780735843134
Publisher:	NorthSouth Books
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Pages:	24
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 3 Years

About the Author

Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, Emmy-winning producer and #1 New York Times bestselling author of 40 books, including This Is The Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets, Why Fathers Cry at Night, An American Story, The Door of No Return, Becoming Muhammad Ali (co-authored with James Patterson), Rebound, which was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, and The Undefeated, the National Book Award nominee, Newbery Honor, and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson.

Kwame is also the Emmy-winning Executive Producer, Showrunner, and Writer of The Crossover TV series, based on his Newbery-Medal winning novel of the same name, which premiered on Disney+ in April 2023. The series was produced in partnership with LeBron James' SpringHill Company and Big Sea Entertainment, Kwame's production company that is dedicated to creating innovative, highly original children’s and family entertainment. Other current projects in development at Big Sea include America’s Next Great Author, the groundbreaking reality television series for writers.

A regular contributor to NPR’s Morning Edition, Kwame is the creator and host of the Why Fathers Cry podcast, premiering September 2023, featuring conversations about love and parenting and loss, with fathers and sons. He regularly shares his passion for literacy, books and the craft of writing around the world at events like the Chautauqua Lecture Series, the Edinburgh Book Festival, Aspen Ideas, and the Global Literacy Symposium in Ghana, where he opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana. Most recently he was appointed the Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts and Writer-in-Residence at the Chautauqua Institution.

His mission is to change the world, one word at a time.

Daniel Miyares is a critically acclaimed and award winning picture book author and illustrator. Some of his books include: Float, Night Out, Hope At Sea, and Bring Me A Rock!. He believes that our stories have the power to connect us all. Daniel’s story currently takes place in Lenexa, KS with his wife, their two wonderful children, and a dog named Violet that gives them all a run for their money.

To find out more visit danielmiyares.com or stop by @danielmiyaresdoodles on Instagram.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Page 1 of

Editorial Reviews

The Newbery winner Alexander…and the enchanting, versatile Miyares…playfully topple the "reluctant reader" idea.

The New York Times Book Review - Maria Russo

★ 11/09/2015
“You’d rather read a book than go to the beach?” A surfer frog named Dude can’t believe that his fellow surfer frog Bro is sticking with a “boring” book instead of hanging 10. But after hearing Bro’s running commentary on the book’s Moby-Dick-esque plot, Dude gets just as carried away. “Batten down the hatches!” shouts Bro, who has cast himself as Ahab in the midst of a mighty storm. “Do what to the what?” asks Dude—but he’s right there on board the ship, too. Alexander, the 2015 Newbery Medalist for The Crossover, starts off at full throttle and never lets up: almost every line of this all-dialogue story ends in an exclamation point, and the liberal use of bright, all-caps typography ratchets up the emotions even higher. But the real excitement is in Miyares’s (Float) wondrously rollicking drawings. Working in saturated colors and boldly graphic textures, he sends these big-eyed, freaked-out frogs hurtling (often literally) between fantasy and reality. It’s a wild ride on the sea of imagination, and a rousing high-five to the power of reading. Ages 4–8. Illustrator’s agency: Studio Goodwin Sturges. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"With their strategic use of color and line, the illustrations work well with Alexander’s snappy, spare text (all in dialogue) to create a high-energy tribute to the power of a good book."

The Horn Book

*Starred Review: "Working in saturated colors and boldly graphic textures, he [Miyares] sends these big-eyed, freaked-out frogs hurtling (often literally) between fantasy and reality. It’s a wild ride on the sea of imagination, and a rousing high-five to the power of reading."- Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

12/01/2015
PreS-K—Bro and Dude, two frog friends, have differing ideas about what makes for a fun day at the beach. Dude, dressed in swim trunks, surfboard in hand, is totally ready to catch some waves. Bro, meanwhile, has his head buried in a book (Moby-Dick) and wants to keep reading. Despite his claim that "books are boring," Dude finds himself increasingly interested in the story about a man looking for a whale. As the characters make their way to the seashore, Bro reads aloud and the illustrations transform to showcase the action of Melville's classic tale, cleverly substituting Bro the frog in the place of Captain Ahab. Pirate lingo ("Batten down the hatches!") and surfer slang ("Cowabunga!") enliven the story and will have young listeners giggling. Miyares's digitally created illustrations are expressive and full of energy and motion—a perfect complement to Alexander's simple yet buoyant text. VERDICT A joyful and humor-filled ode to the magic of imagination and reading.—Kiera Parrott, School Library Journal

School Library Journal

★ 2015-11-03
A sunny day near the ocean means different kinds of excitement for frog friends Bro and Dude. Dude peeks into the window: "SURF'S UP, BRO!" But Bro is too immersed in a book to respond ("You'd rather read a book than go to the beach?" Dude asks incredulously), so Dude pops pal and surfboard onto the back of his push scooter. On the way, Bro is still reading: "WOWIE KAZOWIE!" The story ("about a man looking for a whale") begins to unfold around them both. The looming whale, a stormy sea, a ship with a frog sporting a bicorn hat at the helm, and the mast cracking in two are suddenly right at hand. Bro's thrilled enthusiasm and punchy exclamations as he finishes the book finally elicit Dude's eager questions: "Did they catch the whale? Who got the gold?" and Bro's sly response, "Not telling." Miyares' edge-to-edge illustrations, full of motion, capture in these frog characters a friendship that offers space to be oneself, with a nice reversal at the end: Dude has his nose in the book ("WHOA, DADDY-O"), and Bro catches a wave ("COWABUNGA!"). Newbery winner (The Crossover, 2014) Alexander's humorous, tautly poetic dialogue between friends begs to be read aloud to small listeners or by new readers, and these frogs have cultural punch that many plain-vanilla animal characters lack. The nod to Moby-Dick is a bonus. A warmhearted tribute to reading. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews

Related collections and offers

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Related Subjects

Customer Reviews