On the one hand, the book got my hackles up right off the bat when it begins by telling about Gideon and Audrey’s tradition of building a sandcastle together every summer: “Gideon made sure each tower stood straight, every wall was level, and all the castle sides were smooth. Audrey made sure the castle sparkled with shells, sea glass, ad a starfish on the top.” Seriously? Are we still allowing children’s picture books to blatantly pass on gender stereotypes that the boy cares about the engineering of the castle and the girl is all about decorating? And yet if it wasn’t for that one page, I like how the story continued with Gideon deciding one summer that he was going to build one all on his own, and after many attempts that get destroyed by waves or wind or others on the beach, he does indeed succeed in building a structurally impressive sand castle, admired by many strangers, only to discover his success is a bit hollow when he sees his sister and parents joyfully laughing together over a much more lopsided structure. I like the message of valuing togetherness and joy over independent glory. I feel like the publisher let the author down here: if it had been big sister v. little sister or big brother v. little brother, it could have avoided the whole sexist flaw easily enough.