Smug Seagull

K-Gr 2–Seagull is swift as well as smug. Swooping down the crowded beach, this bold bird swipes sandwiches, grapes, chips, and other edibles from stunned beachgoers. Frost’s busy cartoon sketches follow the bragging bird through broad beach and underwater scenes and many smaller close-up moments as his swiping skills are tested by a much smaller beach denizen. A red crab gets the better of him in a french fry theft, and off into the water they go. Seagull humorously reacts to the tussles with underwater creatures and the feisty beach humans who now start to fight back. As he meets with the crab again, he quips: “Well, if it isn’t Mr. Fancy Legs! You got a lotta nerve coming around my neck of the beach.” It’s a tale of confrontation and new camaraderie. Children turn the tide and Seagull and the crab soar off to new thievery.