What's in A Shell? Tiny Tales: Shell Quest by Steve Waldo

This squishy little critter is lost and alone!

"GOSH, THIS BACKYARD IS BIG. WHERE IS EVERYONE?

She follows some voices through the grass. Scoot Scoot!

"WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS ON THEIR BACKS? WHY DON'T I HAVE ONE?"

The critters she sees look like her--with two antennas out in front, but they have big round things on their backs. Evidently she has got to have one of whatever that is on her back. Spying an acorn shell, she pops it on her back. It fits!

"THEY ARE SHELLS. ALL SNAILS HAVE THEM. IF YOU HAVE GOT ONE, YOU CAN PLAY WITH US!" SAY HER NEW FRIENDS!

But keeping a shell in place has its problems! BONK! A falling acorn knocks it off. She promises to find a substitute ASAP!

"COME BACK WHEN YOU DO!" THEY SAY.

But finding a substitute shell is not easy. A thimble is a really bad fit! Will she ever fit in and find a friend?

But a lucky rainstorm washes her into a hollow log, where she spies some creatures who look like her but DO NOT have hards shells on their backs.

"WHERE IS YOUR SHELL?" SHE ASKS.

"WE DON'T HAVE ONE! WE ARE SLUGS! "HER NEW ACQUAINTANCE SAYS.

"I'VE GOT YOUR BACK!"

Our little lost mollusk finds her place in the world at last in Harper Publishing's new easy reading series, I Can Read Comics, in Steve Waldo's Tiny Tales: Shell Quest (I Can Read Comics Level 3) (Harper Alley, 2021), in a story of finding a sense of belonging in the world of mollusks, a fascinating group of animals on their own, in an attractive comic book format for beginning readers. Share this new format for emergent readers with Tiny Tales: A Feast for Friends (I Can Read Comics Level 3).

Giggle Bait! Snail & Worm All Day: Three Stories about Two Friends by Tina Kugler

WOW! Look at that cave.

So dark and spooky.

Snail has discovered what he takes to be a cave. It rises from the ground suddenly, a mound, big and brown, with a gaping black opening. No one replies to his yoo-hoos until....

... an imposing reptilian head peers out grumpily. It must be a ...dragon!

"Please don't eat me!" Snail cries.

But the "dragon" politely requests quiet so he can nap. Worm appears, and the jittery Snail tells him about the terrible dragon inside the cave.

"Are you talking about this turtle?" asks Worm, sensibly.

And when the sleepy turtle finally comes out of his shell and moves to a quieter locale, Snail "runs" for his life. Whew!

Now snail needs a nap inside his own shell!

Snail and Worm are back, with three more classic noodle tales, in the Geisel Award-winning Tina Kugler's third book about those unlikely free-range friends, Snail and Worm All Day: Three Stories About Two Friends (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019). In three easy-reading "stories about two friends," patient Worm again plays straight man to noodlehead Snail in stories which allow young readers to feel smarter than a snail and practice their reading skills as well.

Author-illustrator Tina Kugler again provides just right humor in her text and big comic illustrations as she did in her earlier books in this series--Snail and Worm: Three Stories About Two Friends and Snail and Worm Again: Three Stories About Two Friends--sweet and silly stories in the tradition of Arnold Lobel's classic Frog and Toad are Friends tales, about a pair of pals perfect for each other and perfect for beginning readers who will zip faster than a speeding snail through this book and its prequels.

Shell Envy: Norman the Slug and the Silly Shell by Sue Hendra

Norman the Slug thought snails were great.

"WOW! Look at them! They're AMAZING!"

Norman has a serious case of shell lust. Those shiny shells with their awesome spirals are a must-have. Norman is a normal slug, but he feels that on the inside of those curvy shells, snails are just well-dressed slugs.

All he needs is a shell. He tries out tying on an alarm clock. Too clangy! He tries an apple, but it turns out to be occupied by a resident worm. Ugh! If only he can find the right round thingy, he can fit right in with the snail clan.

And then Norman spies a dropped doughnut--with sprinkles! With it on his back, he looks just like a snazzy, stylish snail... RIGHT? -He heads off to play with the snails, sure he's at last got the right stuff.

But a passing bird has another idea. No fool, that bird knows a doughnut when he sees one, and Norman suddenly finds himself soaring right over the gawking snails' heads, his supposed shell in the bird's beak. The snails are impressed, all right, but not in way Norman has hoped. Luckily, Norman has one skill in which slugs excel. He can produce...

SLIME! LOTS OF IT!

Apparently Norman didn't get the point when Polonius pontificated, "First to thine own self be true." Still believing that he can be anything he wants to be, Norman suddenly discovers that he loves flying, and when the disgusted bird drops the slimy pastry, Norman moves on to finding flight for himself, in Sue Hendra's Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell (Aladdin Books, 2017). With its bright and super silly illustrations, Hendra takes this one to the outer limits of the ludicrous, with her sappy--but happy-- slug who will delight youngsters busy giggling at his improbable, perhaps impossibly glorious dreams. After all, Hendra's readers are at an age where they can still think outside the box for a while. Says Publishers Weekly, "Don't look for just-be-yourself messages here: Hendra ends with a goofy scene that indicates that Norman isn't done trying out life as other creatures."