A Shell Is Cozy
Today on “Take Five,” I’m recommending a nonfiction book for grades K – 4 called A Shell is Cozy, written by Dianna Hutts Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long, published by Chronicle Books, 2023.
Growing up, I enjoyed many summer vacations on Carolina beaches. I spent hours strolling the shore, toes in the sand, picking up seashells that caught my eye.
This book celebrates that childhood fascination. It’s the seventh title in Aston and Long’s nature series, which began with An Egg is Quiet. The artwork is stunning. No simple shells or sun-bleached shades here. A Shell is Cozy is a festival of saturated colors and swirling lines. Just look at that cover!
I’m currently working on two books about nature, and Dianna Aston’s text has inspired me to experiment with new approaches.
Five Fabulous Features:
- Two-layer text. The book has a main layer in a large font and a secondary layer in a smaller font. The main layer is usually one simple sentence per spread: “A shell is cozy,” “A shell is showy,” “A shell is everywhere….” When read alone, this layer forms a list poem and establishes the book’s circular structure.
- The second layer. Here Aston leads kids to ask questions, to think like a scientist. How is a shell cozy? How is it everywhere? Her text provides the answers.
- Relatable experiences. Aston’s poetic voice evokes sensory experiences that conjure emotions: “cozy,” “bony,” “soft, delicate.” Plus, she makes a mollusk’s life sound fun, whether it’s “slip-sliding through mud,” “scurrying through the sand and sea,” or “climbing into treetops.”
- Dense with details. Many kids choose nonfiction books because they want to learn all about a topic that fascinates them. This book lets kids do this. They can become the mini-experts they aspire to be—aided by diagrams, details, captions, and scientific vocabulary like gastropod, bivalve, operculum, and calcium carbonate.
- Browsable and narrative. You can flip to any page and find something interesting to look at and read about. You can skip paragraphs. You can skip pages. And it will still make sense. But if you read the whole thing, you discover the narrative arc and the delightful ending, where an old shell is adopted by a new creature, becoming cozy once again. This structure makes it ideal for a wide range of ages and settings, from classroom read-alouds to independent browsing. Wouldn’t it be perfect for a rainy afternoon at the beach, snuggled up indoors, waiting for a thunderstorm to pass?
As the unofficial start of summer arrives this weekend, I hope you enjoy a few moments relaxing, reading, or spending time outdoors in nature. Happy Memorial Day!
