Seashells by the Seashore

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Author: Marianne Berkes
Illustrator: Robert Noreika

Retail Price: Paperback • $8.95 | Hardback • $16.95
Web Special: Paperback • $8.06 | Hardback • $15.26

Both classroom teachers and vacationing parents will find this little book to be a charmer. Counting from one to twelve, Sue picks up shells—periwinkle, kitten’s paw, scallop—and carefully adds them to her bucket as a gift for Grandma. She and her friend identify the shells, and when they discover one that still has the mollusk living inside they put it back in the water—learning that shells are actually the (usually) abandoned homes of sea animals. The paperback edition contains a tear-out shell identification card to enhance the hands-on lesson in nature’s simple wonders.

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Book Details

Awards

Learning Magazine Teacher’s Choice Award (Finalist)
North American Publishing Co. Gold Ink Award (Pewter)

Book Reviews

Through a lyrical counting rhyme, children accompany Sue as she walks the shore, collecting seashells for her grandmother. The rhythmic lines reinforce numbers 1 through 12, while describing individual shells and explaining what shells are and how they came to be on the sandy shore. The strong-stroked watercolor art subtly educates as well, depicting not only the traditional sweep of wide, clean, swimmers’ beach but also the rougher edges of the shore. It’s along the shore that sea birds prowl alongside Sue amid the large, rough boulders and between the feathers, driftwood, and other ocean debris caught in tangles of dried seaweed and rocks. With each turn of the page, a new shell is discovered, identified, and displayed in the wide left margin. At rhyme’s end, the text elaborates on the poem’s basic facts, delivering details about each particular shell. A seashell identification chart completes this instructive shell hunt that children will enjoy even if they can’t feel the sun on their backs or sand between their toes.

— Booklist – Ellen Mandel (March 2002)

In this rhyming text, a young girl accumulates a dozen shells as a gift for Grandma’s birthday. Watercolor seashore vistas feature blonde Sue as she enlists her brother and his friend in finding her treasures. A vertical bar on the left side of each spread gathers the labeled collection together for viewing as the day progresses. Berkes offers ample facts in her rhymes, and gives a short paragraph of information on each type of shell on a spread at the end. . . . Noreika’s detailed, realistic shell studies gracefully contrast with the misty landscapes that capture a range of unique seaside hues. While the tear-out identification card for readers to use as they roam the shore may soon be lost, young beachcombers will still be able to appreciate this lesson.
Publisher’s Note: The tear-out shell identification card referred to in this review is only included in the paperback version of this title.

— School Library Journal (April 2002)

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