Is This a House for Hermit Crab?
by Megan McDonald, illustrated by S.D. Schindler
What does a hermit crab do when his house grows too big? Look for a new one of course. But sometimes the search is harder than we think. Will hermit crab find the perfect
The Story
The children’s picture book Is This a House for Hermit Crab?, is the funny yet serious (to the crab) story of a hermit crab’s search for a new home. The story was written by Megan McDonald, a children’s librarian in Pittsburgh, PA. McDonald developed the idea for the story when she narrated a play for her young patrons using a hermit-crab puppet that she had.
McDonald tells the story of a hermit crab whose house has grown too small for him (again), so the poor fellow goes house hunting. The hermit crab soon finds that house hunting is not at all easy. He discovers that nearly every house he finds is either too heavy, too noisy, too dark, too deep, has too many holes, or has some other defect like belonging to someone else. Finally, when the poor hermit crab almost becomes a meal for a hungry pricklepine fish, the hermit crab makes a desperate bid for escape and tries to hide behind a snail shell only to discover the snail is gone and the shell is empty. Once the pricklepine fish leaves, the hermit crab studies this potential home. Hermit crab discovers that it is not too heavy, too noisy, too dark, too deep, it didn’t have too many holes, it doesn’t belong to someone else, and “it fit just right.”
The Illustrations
The illustrations by S.D. Schindler are spare and simple. They are primarily beige in tone and are slightly grainy which fits in nicely with the sea sand that is such a huge part of this story’s backdrop.
What is particularly captivating in the pictures is the trails we see on every page illustrating the path hermit crab took as he approached (and exited) his most recent house investigation.
Perhaps the most humorous scene occurs when hermit crab hurries away from a home already inhabited by a very large fiddler crab. The backwards glance from his eyestalks as he scuttles out of reach and off the corner of the page is quite funny.
In Conclusion
Is This a House for Hermit Crab? is a delightful and very short picture book. It is a wonderful way to introduce small children to the idiosyncratic need of hermit crabs to make their homes out of someone else’s abandoned home. The story also clearly illustrates why the crab’s home is so important to him.
Is This a House for Hermit Crab? Written by Megan McDonald, Illustrated by S.D. Schindler. Orchard Books, 1990. ISBN 0-531-07041-7.
