School Library Journal
(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

PreS-Gr 3-A humorous story of a surfer chick coming into her own. Her dad rules the Roost Surf Shop and has radical skills, and now he's agreed to show the chick his best moves. After she wipes out, she must get the courage to try again. This is a sweet, spunky story about perseverance and gaining confidence. Acrylic paint and colored pencil with a hot press watercolor make the sunsets dynamic and bright. The lively art has a cartoon feel; the waves seem iridescent and jump off the pages. Fans of animation will like this style. The playful rhyming text incorporates plenty of surfer slang like "radical," "bummer," and "gnarly." Not only does this youngster learn to surf, but she also invents some moves of her own. Totally awesome!-Jess deCourcy Hinds, Bard H.S. Early College, Queens, NY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Chick, a long-lashed tan chicken in a green two-piece bathing suit, is determined to make her surfer-star father proud. Peppered with surf lingo, Dempsey's (Mini Racer) verses occasionally stretch to make their rhymes work; it's Cole's (The Kiss Box) expressive acrylic and colored pencil illustrations that give the heroine her irrepressible character and focus the story's message about determination. The relationship between Chick and her father is sweetly rendered as he teaches her to paddle ("what happened next/ was a foul-tempered battle") and to stand on her board ("a colossal wipeout"). Cole's humorous cartoons are particularly good at depicting Surfer Chick's emotions-a poignant image shows Surfer Chick gathering her courage ("Alone on the sand,/ Chick simply felt chicken")-and her brave return to the sea results in her inadvertently inventing a new trick. Cole's inky blue sea, with its dramatic swells, adds to the story's tension and makes Chick's victory all the sweeter. Readers faced with trying something new should identify with this heroine-and maybe even start asking parents about surfing lessons. Ages 3-7. Agent: Kendra Marcus, BookStop Literary. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.