Young Ruby’s eager to be a surfer girl, until a wipeout gives her second thoughts. With enthusiasm almost bursting from both her clipped narrative and Collins’s sequential panels of gracefully posed, heavy-lined figures on the beach and in the foamy water, Ruby describes both her anticipation and the careful preparation she gets from her dad. Then, despite all the practice, her tandem ride with him turns into a scary spill that leaves her on the beach, mad and frightened. Happily, not for long, and taking her father’s advice to “get right back on the horse,” she zooms off with him on an exhilarating ride. Though would-be surfer dudes will pick up safety advice, a sense of the sport’s thrills, a bit of “hang ten” lingo—and even a capsule history of wave-riding at the end—the theme of overcoming fear makes this salutary reading for any child needing a figurative remount, wet or dry. (Picture book. 7-10)