Shells By Cynthia Rylant Summary

“Shells” By Cynthia Rylant is a short realistic fiction about a fourteen-year-old boy that lives with his Aunt Esther. His Mom and Dad have died. In the beginning he is arguing with his Aunt about if he likes her or not. He does not like living with her. He is very lonely. Soon, he gets a hermit crab. One day he comes home and finds his Aunt sitting on his bed. She is staring at the hermit crab saying “he needs a friend.” She goes to the pet store and buys twenty hermit crabs. They put some nail polish on sluggo (the original hermit crab) so they can remember who he is. In the end, sluggo comes out of his shell. The hermit crab is just like Michael. One way the hermit crab is just like Michael is that they are both very lonely. For example, in paragraph 16 the author says “Oh, was he lonely” and his parents had just died. In paragraph 21 the author says “Michael hadn’t made any new friends at his new school, and his teachers barely noticed him.” He came home alone every day. In paragraph 3 Michael is dully sliding his milk glass back and forth. Michael is like the hermit crab because he feels all alone because his parents died, he does not like living with his Aunt and doesnt have any friends at school. This shows that the hermit crab is just like Michael because Michael is

For example, in paragraph 67 the author says “ The crab, finished with his old home that no longer fit, was coming out of his shell.” The crab was happy he had new friends and was coming out of his shell. In paragraph 64, for example, Michael tells his Aunt he does not hate her. In paragraph 60 for example, it says that Aunt Esther embraced him and she had not embraced anyone in years. They are both becoming happier in their new homes and are both happy to have friends. This is important because it shows that they are both changing and are both becoming