Jimmie the Crab

Jimmie the blue crab wakes up hungry. In his search for food, he encounters a toadfish that might eat him and a crab pot that could carry him up and away. Jimmie survives these perils because the toadfish is full of oysters, and he is small enough that he falls through and escapes the crab pot.

He meets a diamond back terrapin turtle named Terrie and they become fast friends while searching for food together. Jimmie and Terrie find a dead fish and eat it all up. They then hide in some seagrass and sleep for the night. During the night, Jimmy sloughs out of his old small shell and is now a little bigger. The next morning, Jimmie and Terrie again go searching for food.

Jimmie the Crab: An Adventure in the Chesapeake Bay includes photographs of the underwater animals in the book and some information about each one. The events in the story are real-life scenarios that play out beneath the surface of Chesapeake Bay any time of year when the water temp is high enough for crabs and turtles to be active.

For most of his life, Joseph Christopher Cullis has called the Chesapeake Bay his playground. He lives on the Delmarva Peninsula on Maryland's eastern shore and has published two books of poetry. This is his first book written for children. "The idea of Jimmie the Crab started with an impromptu banter between my oldest brother and me. Once I started writing it out, the story kind of wrote itself."

Publisher's website: http://sbpra.com/JosephChristopherCullis