The Dear Dragon series is made up of several books that are easy readers. They use site vocabulary that is printed in the back of the book. It reminds me of the books I learned to read with.

In this book, the family is taking a trip to the beach and Dear Dragon goes with them. They experience all the things families would do at the beach. They collect seashells, make sandcastles, eat a picnic lunch and even clean up a section of the beach. The illustrations are wonderful and illustrate the text perfectly. These Beginning-to-Read books capture the imaginations of beginning readers and help them on their way to independent reading. They could also be read aloud to young children who are not able to read yet. A great addition to a family library or a primary classroom.

Thank you to Netgalley and Norwood House Press for the opportunity to read and review this book. ( )

~ borrowed from the Library

DEAR DRAGON GOES TO THE BEACH is a practice reader at Kindergarten Reading Level -- end of year, Accelerated Reader level 0.9. Like many of Margaret Hillert's books this one is Common Core Suggested.

The story has boy's family, including Dear Dragon of course, going to the beach. The beach is one of those where you have to walk through the dunes to get to the water and at first it confuses the boy. Soon though they are doing beach stuff. Spot the dog is sniffing, the children play and then eat, and finally boy and dragon clean up a bit.

The word count is 202, with there being 73 different words. Some of the more difficult ones are: beach, water, clean, one, two, three and something.

If you also have a toddler available you can also use this book to talk about the beach, the environment (boy and dragon clean up), as well point-and-name lots of beach and home objects.