A House for Hermit Crab

by Eric Carle

Hermit Crab seeks the perfect home—and learns to appreciate change—in this mini-book edition of Eric Carle’s beloved story.

Join Hermit Crab as he learns an important lesson about growing up: For every friend and adventure left behind, there are new ones just ahead!

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, Fiction, Storytime, Nature, Friendship

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Eric Carle was an American author, designer and illustrator of children's books. His picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, first published in 1969, has been translated into more than 66 languages and sold more than 50 million copies. Carle's career as an illustrator and children's book author accelerated after he collaborated on Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?. Carle illustrated more than 70 books, most of which he also wrote, and more than 145 million copies of his books have been sold around the world.
In 2003, the American Library Association awarded Carle the biennial Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal (now called the Children's Literature Legacy Award), a prize for writers or illustrators of children's books published in the U.S. who have made lasting contributions to the field. Carle was also a U.S. nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2010.

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hermit Crab has to get a new house after he outgrows the latest. Then he goes around and finds plants and animals who are willing to live with him and he decorates his shell with them. Sea anemones, coral, snails and lanternfish are some of the things he decorates his shell with. The story takes place over a year and by the end he needs a new house.

This is Eric Carle artwork as we love it. It's lovely. This is a nice beginning story for kids. He throws in the months of the year with fun sea life. I love it. This is a great story.

I read this on Open Library.

[Matt]

At the beginning of the year, Hermit Crab finds his current shell is too small. He ventures out in search of a new one, only to discover that it is drab. Carle takes the reader along throughout the months, as Hermit Crab decorates and finds protection for his new house. By the end of the year, the shell has become too small again, forcing him to make a significant decision. Neo has long been an Eric Carle fan and liked the colours and less than mainstream illustrating.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely story with beautiful illustrations of ocean floor life. A hermit crab is looking for a new place to live, the shell he finds is quite plain but he soon makes it look nice. This is an interesting and informative read with some sea creature information in the back pages.

Read on open library.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Text-to-Self Connection:

"A House for Hermit Crab" is a cute little story that definitely relates to me! I am always looking for things and such to decorate my house with. Every time I see something, I want it just like the Hermit Crab. I am constantly on the look out for new items to grab as well as bargain items to refresh old ones. Sometimes I begin to wonder if I am a hoarder with all the decor, but I really enjoy being crafty and decorating plain items and making them new.

[❅ Lyn Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this to my little brothers and we loved the story! It was very cute that a hermit crab decided to decorate his house with other little critters that eventually became his friends (he brought them with their permission of course). And when it was time for him to move out of his shell and leave his friends behind, the friends on his old shell were not forgotten. Another little hermit crab moved into his old shell and the cycle could begin again for the main hermit crab.

[Kym · Rating 5 out of 5]

A House for Hermit Crab is a wonderful story. Hermit Crab realizes he has outgrown his shell and has to find a new one. It is scary to have to leave the safety of your home and find a new home. Hermit Crab knows he must find a new home straight away because his home keeps him save in the open sea. He does accomplish finding a home that fits just right very quickly. This home even looks like his old home. However, he decides it's plain and goes on a quest in the dangerous, wide open sea in search of decorations. He is met by all kinds of friends who help make his new home beautiful. Instead of sitting safely in his plain home Hermit Crab ventures out and makes friends, lives life and makes a creates a lovely home in the process! The book goes throught the months of the year and by the end of the book in November he has outgrown his beautiful, new shell that his new friends have decorated. He leaves the shell and his friends to seek out a new shell by giving the shell to someone who promises to take care of the shell and his friends. I highly recommend this book. This would be a great timeline assignment using the months going over one year. It sends a special message of getting out into the world and all its dangers because there are friends and beauty to be found!

[Luisa Knight · Rating 2 out of 5]

What's up with August? The book was following a pattern with Hermit picking a new item each month to decorate his home with ... except the pattern was broken in August and then resumed again in September, haha.

Ages: 4 - 8

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[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This repetitive story about a hermit crab moving into a new shell has a great rhythm and also provides opportunities to practice counting and identification of new creatures.

Everyone here really liked this and I think we'll soon add it to our home library.

[Mariah Roze · Rating 3 out of 5]

My students are reading all about habitats, so this is a great book for that topic. It is very cute!

[Bhargavi Balachandran · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a brilliant way to explain symbiotic relationships in the ocean. Dig it!

[Shawn Deal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fun book about a hermit crab who is trying to decorate his shell. A creative book that promotes creativity.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent allegory for change. Eric Carle is a legend.

[Madeline Feldman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A House for Hermit Crab is another example of Eric Carle's incredible ability to craft a simple yet meaningful story and let the beautiful illustrations be the star of the book. The book begins with a hermit crab who is growing up and has become too big for his current home-his shell. Luckily, he easily finds a new shell to live in, but he has decided that this new shell is much too simple for his liking and sets out to decorate his new home. On his journey, he meets many other sea creatures, such as sea anemones, sea stars, and coral, and asks them to help him decorate his new house. The hermit crab is smart though, and learns that if he is kind to the sea creatures he meets he will make a friend for life that will be happy to help him. At the end of the story, a year has gone by and the hermit crab has again outgrown his current home. Although reluctant to leave, he ends up giving his current shell to a smaller crab for whom this old shell is a perfect size. The crab then goes out to find his next home and is excited by the idea of decorating a new place!

This is a perfect book to share with a class of students of any age at the beginning or end of the school year. At the beginning of the year, the message to students would be that when you treat each other with respect and are kind to each other, you will more easily make and keep life-long friends, just as the hermit crab did. Through out the school year, this could be a familiar text both teacher and students continually refer to if the need arises for how to treat each other the way you want to be treated. At the end of the year, the message of the book could be adapted to help explain to students that after a year together, they have outgrown the current home and are ready to move on to their next step. The book is both imaginative and full of meaningful messages. A perfect addition to any classroom library.

[Bookstork Buzz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A HOUSE FOR HERMIT CRAB is a charming story about the habits of a hermit crab, with a subtheme : the breaking away from the old and venturing out into the new.

When Hermit Crab outgrows his old shell, he has to find a bigger place in which to dwell. His new home is old and very plain. But, bit by bit, anemone and starfish and crusty coral come along to adorn it; snail keep it clean, sea urchin (prickly and fierce) love to protect it and lanternfish light it up. Hermit is a happy crab. Until his cozy quarters become too cramped and again, coming full circle, he has to let go of the shell (along with the comfort of the sweet and familiar).

"I couldn't stay in that little shell forever," said Hermit Crab as he waved goodbye.

The ocean floor looked wider than he had remembered, but Hermit Crab wasn't afraid....."Sponges!" he thought. "Barnacles! Clown fish! Sand dollars! Electric Eels! Oh, there are so many possibilities!...."

So many possibilities : the important message about accepting the cycle of change with an open mind, a message made simple and gentle as only Eric Carle can. I learned a lot about hermit crabs too (stuff I didn't know - I'd actually never heard of a hermit crab until reading the book) and the illustrations are attractive and easy to follow.

[Tammy Manns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genre: Fiction
Grade Level: Early Primary; AR level: 3.7

Eric Carle is one of my favorite authors. I love his illustrations and the ease of reading his stories. I have used this book in the daycare setting and we created our own Hermit crabs with random art supplies. It is a great book for a read aloud for younger children and since it is a 3.7 AR level, it would be great for Upper Primary grades. I like that it explains the ocean life of the creatures he used to decorate his shell with. It's very informative. I would use this book at the beginning of the school year to talk about change and adapting to a new environment.

[Asho · Rating 3 out of 5]

F has several mini Eric Carle board books that were given to her as a set, and this is one of them. It's cute, although in many ways it seems reductive of Leo Lionni's Swimmy, in that it's about an ocean creature wandering around and observing other ocean creatures. Also, all the Eric Carle books start to blur together after a while for me. Still, F enjoyed this, especially counting the fish (she loves fish).

ETA 2021: F rediscovered this book today. She still likes it a lot.

[Nohemí González · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like this writer the illustrations are amazing to me but my daughter didn't like it that much

[Kathryn Tibbens · Rating 5 out of 5]

In an incredibly engaging and wonderful story, Hermit Crab realizes he has outgrown his shell home and begins the journey to find a new one. He quickly finds his new home but things it is a bit bland and needs some decorations to make it unique. He travels the ocean floor and meets new friends along the way as they help him create an original masterpiece of a home. The book goes through the sequence of the months of the year, a great tool for younger readers, and by November, Hermit Crab has outgrown his home again. He leaves his beautiful home to someone who promises to take care of it and his new friends as he ventures out to begin a new journey. Through dicuts, interactive pages and sequence of events and repetition, readers gain important messages of friendship and embracing fears of new change through a cute and loveable Hermit Crab. Bright colors, classic to Eric Carle engage young readers as well as provide opportunities for growth through repetition and fun new knowledge on ocean life.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yesterday, I went to an exhibit of Eric Carle’s artwork, and they had many of his books available to read, so I read a few. I was surprised that this one was my favorite. It tells a story of a hermit crab who encounters various sea creatures, and invites them to live on his shell. But ultimately [spoiler] he outgrows the shell. He passes it on to a small homeless hermit crab, and as he moves into his new shell, he’s already thinking of how he might decorate it.

The story does a wonderful job of depicting growing up, and outgrowing things. It would also resonate with any kid who has to move to a new place. The illustrations are colorful, and I appreciated them more for having just seen the originals displayed.

Carle has been writing and illustrating children’s books for 50 years. His style of art is to paint tissue paper, then cut it out in shapes and glue them together to form the illustration. It’s something a kid could have fun experimenting with as well.

[Hannah Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hermit Crab has outgrown his shell and needs to go looking for a new one. He finally found a shell that fit, but it was quite plain. Throughout the next year, Hermit Crab found sea anemones, a starfish, coral, a snail, a sea urchin, a lanternfish. They would help decorate, protect, clean, and light up his new house. However, November rolled by and Hermit Crab’s shell was feeling too small. He gave his beautiful home to a smaller crab that was looking for a shell. Hermit Crab went looking for a bigger shell and found the perfect house, but it was a bit too plain. It’s time for him to go looking for new decorations to spruce up his home!

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked how the book had a good flow and kept a rhythm. The book is easy for a child to follow and comprehend. Although, the book is kind of lengthy which could make the child become bored. The author used a lot of dialogue which makes the book easy to act out and use different voices with to keep children interesting. The target age of this book would be between 5-8. Since it is important for children to learn about making new friends, I think this book does a great job showing children how to continue making new friends everyday.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book because he tried to find a shell; he found a shell in January and it looked very plain and he found lots of people on the way and he decorated on his house. He walked along and the shell got too big and he found some rocks and he asked "Do you mind if I arrange you?" and they said "not at all!"

[Viviane Elbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covers all twelve months and introduces young ones to a variety of sea life. Back matter in the back of the book provides non-fiction information about the sea animals encountered in the book. It has quite a bit of text, but fans of Eric Carle’s illustrations will enjoy looking at the pictures.

[🌶 peppersocks 🧦 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reflections and lessons learned:
Even hermit crabs need friends! A tale of beautiful society building on the bottom of the ocean and a strong nod to the fact that change is inevitable despite the upheaval and uncertainty... but the circle of life should settle our minds that things rarely go to waste

Who am I kidding trying to do these once a week - I’m off to buy a box set and although the audio versions are great, my house and family deserve the illustrations too

[Leena-Maaretta Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

People should re-discover this book, especially since real life Hermit Crabs are dying due to them mistaking plastic waste for shells.

[Angel Torres · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple and enjoyable. The art is good and daughter liked it.

[Leila · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's ok😕

[Fatima Seraj Alam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hermit the crab loves to decorate his shell with different sea animals which is so creative and my daughter learnt sea anemone through this book.

[Ella Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A House for Hermit Crab" by Eric Carle is a charming and beautifully illustrated story about a hermit crab's journey to find a new home, learning valuable lessons about growth, change, and friendship along the way. The hermit crab in this story out grew his shell and found a new home to live in. While he made his home, he also made many friends along the way. He traveled far and had made a very welcoming home. Go to your local bookstore to buy this book today!

[Tao Zheng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this is the most educational Eric Carle book I've read! It's good for older kids and you learn a lot about sea critters at the very end.