The Hermit Crab »

Acclaimed artist Carter Goodrich has illustrated thirteen New Yorker covers and has worked as a character designer on many beloved animated films, including The Prince of Egypt; Shrek; Monsters, Inc.; Finding Nemo; as well as the forthcoming Open Season. He is a two-time gold-medal recipient from the Society of Illustrators in New York and a graduate of the Rhose Island School of Design. His work has also appeared in Newsweek, Forbes, and Time. Mr. Goodrich resides in Los Angeles, California.

Hermit Crab is no hero. He would rather just keep to himself. He's content to spend the day looking for food and staying comfy in his shell. And when he finds a new shell, he is excited to have something so beautiful for himself.

But when a mysterious contraption lands in the center of town, no one knows what to make of it. The lobster thinks it's a restaurant. The bluefish thinks it's a trap. No one is brave enough to go near it until they realize that flounder is trapped underneath!

When Hermit Crab comes upon the contraption looking for the source of the delicious smell, he inadvertantly rescues the flounder and everyone in town cheers his triumph, but is he the hero or is his shell?

Publishers Weekly

Goodrich (A Creature Was Stirring), who has worked on Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc. and Ratatouille, tells a story that tips its hat not only to the Pixar/Disney tropes of misunderstood, unlikely heroes but also to The Story of Ferdinand. When the critter (who has reclusiveness running through his DNA) takes up residence in the top half of a discarded, sternly muscular action figure, he becomes the inadvertent rescuer of a flounder that's caught under a lobster trap. Crab isn't driven by an awakened sense of civic virtue, but rather by the tasty smell of the trap's bait. Happy with his lot in life, he chooses anonymity over celebrity, allowing the other sea creatures to believe that the action figure is responsible. With watercolor and pencil, Goodrich beautifully conveys the feeling of sunlight penetrating the blue-green depths, and the goggle-eyed cluelessness of most of the creatures winks at readers without undermining the story. The narration is rather bland and literal, but the visual point of view is so strong and reassuringly familiar that children probably won't notice. Ages 6-10. (June)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.