I would have loved this as a shells (and rocks!) loving child and I think today’s kids will enjoy it too.

I learned a lot of information I hadn’t known. I would have liked knowing all these facts when I was young and spent a lot of time at beaches.

There is a lot of information provided and interesting detailed illustrations of many shells. There is a world map at the end with where shells are found but it’s not even close to comprehensive. Only one type of shell is shown for even close to my area and I know that is not the case.

I wasn’t in love with the illustrations and I know that the text was meant to be engaging but I didn’t like it that much. I’m not the target audience for this book though and I’d like to hear from elementary school-aged kids how much they enjoy this book. My guess is that it would be a hit. I think I would have happily over the pictures in this book when I was a young reader.

I do appreciate the message at the end, even though it’s very short, about human caused harm to the ecosystem and the encouragement for us to try to do something positive about it.

3-1/2 stars rounded up (I think many readers will consider this book 5 star worthy. I was impressed by how much information it contains and how educational reading it Is.) ( )