Charlie’s Shell The tale of a little snail and the greatest shell there ever was
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley December 8, 2019
Author Marina Zlatanova
Distributor: New Holland Publishers
ISBN: 9781760791377
Publisher: New Holland Publishers
Release Date: October 2019
Website: http://au.newhollandpublishers.com
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Charlie is a happy little snail going about his snail business, as snails do, until he meets a group of slugs who are not nice, in fact they are downright nasty. They start mocking Charlie for having a lovely, big, roomy shell, that needs to be carried everywhere he goes.
Charlie is so sad, so unhappy and down he finally decides that the very best thing he can do is get rid of his terrible, large, humiliating shell. He holds his breath and puffs right up and, POP, off falls his shell.
Freedom, he thinks, happiness; he is overjoyed to think that at last he looks like those slugs that made him so miserable. That is until Charlie begins to have so much trouble it makes him begin to realise that perhaps life with his lovely, roomy shell after all, is not such a bad thing, in fact it is pretty terrific.
Marina Zlatanova has, with lovely rhyming text captured perfectly, the conflict that can be a challenge when bullies decide to make fun out of others, a sad fact and one that can cause a great deal of unhappiness.
In this delicately crafted time old tale, Charlie begins to understand that life as a snail is pretty good, and that life as a slug is perhaps not so terrific, and is most definitely far more dangerous. He learns along his difficult journey, to appreciate that his great, big, cumbersome shell really does make a lovely warm, protective, home.
Glorious illustrations offer a smile and more, as Charlie learns the hard way to appreciate what he has in life. Charlie’s Shell is perfect for young and beginner readers, with the illustrations adding a charm that will appeal to all little people, regardless of age, who love a really good story.