Out Today! "Clem and Crab" by Fiona Lumbers (Andersen Children's Books)

Here's an absolutely perfect book for summer shallow-dippers who (like us) love nothing better than seeing what life is teeming in shoreside rockpools.

In "Clem and Crab" by Fiona Lumbers, Clem finds a new friend nestling in a pool. The poor little fellah's habitat is filled with rubbish though, so Clem decides it's time for a bit of a beach cleanup!

Clem decides that all the disused plastic and rubbish would make a brilliant art project, so puts it all in her bucket - but unknown to her she's carried home a bit of a stowaway! The crab, its poor pincer trapped in a plastic bag, has come along for the ride too.

But would a crab be truly happy, taken away from its seaside home?

Clem's teacher soon shows her that taking Crabby back to his rockpool is a better thing to do, but when Clem arrives at the seaside she sees something truly amazing.

We won't reveal quite what that amazing sight is, suffice to say that the story shows children how easy it is to make a few small differences to our beautiful sealine habitats, picking up any rubbish we might find (as timely and important a message as ever).

It's a delightful story that doesn't layer on its message in too heavy-handed a way, and Fiona's illustrations are as gorgeous as ever, evoking those childhood seaside holidays with ease.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A lovely story wrapped around a simple eco message that we can all do our bit to make a difference to preserving the life and the beauty along our shorelines.

"Clem and Crab" by Fiona Lumbers is out today, published by Andersen Children's Books (kindly supplied for review).