We have owned and used The How & Why Wonder Book of Sea Shells for reference on the Pacific and Atlantic Coasts of the United States while collecting shells. It has a mixture of both colored and black and white illustrations of various shells and has been most helpful to identify most everything we found.
We also owned a combination preschool and childcare center on a town on the Oregon Coast where we used shells to make shell turtles, bugs and even dolls with glue and pipe cleaners. This book contains ideas that got us started on these fun projects for the children.
Our copy may be old, yellowed and a bit worn but it has been a great reference for us over the years.