A dreary day at the beach takes an unexpected turn.On this cloudy, overcast day, Danny's feeling out of sorts. His mother is preoccupied, and his older brother, Mick, is out of the house, hanging with his friends. At the behest of his mom, Danny reluctantly goes to the beach with his dog, Scruff. While Scruff excitedly fetches the stick Danny throws into the water, the boy observes a pile of rocks that resemble other objects: a face, a car, a dog's head. Noticing a crowd of people looking at something in the watery distance, Danny realizes that someone is in distress and, after a bout of self-doubt, sends Scruff into the water to help. Eventually, Danny sees Scruff swimming back with Mick. Mick calls Danny a hero, and the little boy puffs up with pride. As the reunited brothers and their canine companion walk home, the clouds part to reveal a bright, clear blue sky. Browne's textured watercolor illustrations capture the drab day with a palette of deep grays, greens, and purples. Much like Danny, readers will observe small details in the art that contribute to the overall tone of the story, such as the boarded-up houses near the beach that look like giant frowning faces. The brothers present white; background characters are diverse.An illuminating and perceptive look at the quiet confidence in all of us. (Picture book. 4-7)

K-Gr 2 —In what is at once a rousing episode of doggy heroism and an exercise in pareidolia, restless young Danny sets out for what he expects will be just another boring walk along the beach with his shaggy pet Scruff. But a casual game of fetch with a stick takes an astonishing turn when he sends Scruff out toward a distant, waving swimmer—and the dog paddles back with Danny's big brother Mick, hobbled by a cramp, in tow! Before that climactic rescue, a rock Danny picks up with markings that look like a face prompts him to take closer looks at his surroundings—and viewers cued to do the same will find that in his tranquil seaside scenes Browne, ever the master of surreal transformations, has hidden more faces, plus animals, foods, and other items to discover in the multicolored, naturalistically rendered pebbles piled on the sand as well as out on the water, up in the sky, and even in the local bungalows and the figures of other beach walkers. See if that happens in the real world, the episode challenges children to discover. VERDICT An insight worth taking to heart—that just an extra bit of vigilance can turn ordinary sights and moments extraordinary.—John Edward Peters