A Shell is Cozy by Dianna Hutts Aston illustrated by Sylvia Long

A shell is cozy a cozy bony shelter that keeps the soft, delicate parts of 

the shelled animal safely tucked inside. 

Each double page in this book explores a different aspect of shells - a shell is showy; a shell is hatched and protective; a shell is everywhere; a shell is hungry; a shell is athletic; a shell is artistic; a shell is enormous and microscopic; and a shell is treasured.

Bookseller blurb: The newest entry in the bestselling Nature Books series by Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long, A Shell Is Cozy takes a gorgeous look at the fascinating world of shells. From land snails to sea scallops, giant clams to tiny dwarf shells, an incredible array of shells are showcased in all their splendor. Poetic in voice and elegant in design, this carefully researched book is sure to inspire lively questions and spark the imaginations of young readers. This beautiful volume will be equally at home being read to a child on a parent’s lap as it is in a classroom reading circle.  

On the page which explores shells as treasure you will read about coins dating back to Ancient Roman and Greek times and see examples of shells used as tools from even further back in prehistoric times. 

Review Comments:  Once again this team sends us out into nature with sharper perception. Kirkus

Shells fascinate me. I have a memory from childhood of visiting a beach (it might have been here in Sydney) and the sand was littered with shells shaped like long fingernails. As an adult I have read Junonia by Kevin Henkes three times! And I do live near a beach and so I have a tall display jar filled with shells. Oh and one more thing - my family used to take holidays to a coastal town and they had a quirky little shell museum - I wonder if it is still there? Take a look at this post from my friend at Kinderbookswitheverything about seashell books. 

Apart from the wonderful and colourful and surprising shells in this book I loved learning something new. I had no idea how shells were formed. I guess I have just always taken them for granted and not thought deeply about how they actually came to be formed and how they come in so many sizes and shapes. 

Now I have read this (from a science web page):

Shells are formed through a process called biomineralization. Here's how it happens:

• Mollusks have a layer of tissue called the mantle. This layer connects the animal to its shell and creates the shell.
• Specialized cells in the mantle secrete an organic matrix of proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids. This matrix serves as a base for the hard mineral part of the shell.
• The mineral part of the shell is made from calcium carbonate.
• Baby mollusks start building their shell shortly after hatching. They use salt, chemicals from the sea, and proteins from their own bodies to construct the shell.
• Seashells grow in distinct layers through the extracellular secretion of proteins, covered by calcium carbonate.

Read more here. And the Australian Academy of Science have a more in depth explanation. 

And I found this simpler one:

How does something hard like a shell GROW?  There’s more to the mollusk’s magic.  A mollusk takes nutrients and minerals into its body from the things it eats and from the water around it.  These nutrients and minerals then feed into the shell gland, a part of the mollusk’s body that mixes up just the right formula to make a shell.  A mollusk’s shell is mostly made of a mineral called calcium carbonate and also a little protein called chitin.  The shell mixture is released through the mantle, the soft body of the mollusk.  The shell mixture crystallizes, hardens and basically becomes a form of rock! A mollusk’s shell grows only from the edge of the shell.  This means that the tiny center point of a shell is the oldest part, the protoconch, that was there when the mollusk was born.  The rest has grown over time.  If you look closely at a seashell, you can see the “growth rings” where the mollusk has added another layer of growth. When you see a big shell with many rings, it means the mollusk was growing for a long time!

I previously talked about illustrator Sylvia Long. Her art is truly special and I highly recommend you try to find or add some of her books to your reading or library list. Here is her webpage.

Here is the website for Dianna Hutts Aston where you can see all her book titles. These are some of the titles with illustrations by Sylvia Long.