Grayboy — Kay Chorao

Celebrate the beauty and wonder of summer by the bay.It is almost summer. The bay is calm, just brushed in the middle by an offshore wind. A family of swans glides by. Seagulls squawk and circle above the water-all but one gray.During one idyllic summer at the beach, two children befriend an injured seagull and name him Grayboy. The children's days are filled with swimming, shell collecting, and observing all the local wildlife-guided by the rhythms of the bay. They find crabs for Grayboy, build sand castles for him to perch on, and moats for him to wade in. But the bay's rhythms are not always gentle, and a summer storm proves too strong for an injured bird like Grayboy to survive. Although the children lose a friend, they are glad he was part of a summer they will always remember.