Pagoo

First edition (1957) copy of Pagoo by Holling Clancy Holling. 

Little Pagurus—"Pagoo" for short—came from an egg the size of a pencil dot. He drifted on the surface of the sea like a tiny fleck of foam, yet he would become a two-fisted Hermit Crab - if luck was with him.

Under water, Pagoo's glassy body was almost invisible. His large eyes looked like eyes, but the rest of him was a fuzzy blur because as yet he had no claws or legs. Although his parents were nowhere near, his "Old Pal Instinct" would be around to advise him.

Pagoo found bits of floating food small enough to eat, and he grew. He molted by kicking off his plastic armor, as do his crustacean relatives such as Shrimps and Lobsters.
Each molting found him a little larger, with a few more improvements added. Looking more and more like a Hermit Crab, at last he could swim no longer. He settled to the bottom of a tide pool near shore, and walked with legs. But now his armor covered only part of him.

"Scoot!" hissed Old Pal. "Protect that bare, rear half of you!"

Thus Instinct set Pagoo to hunting shelter in crowded Tide-pool Town. He could not know that his odd new body was shaped to fit a particular home built by a creature he had never met. He could not guess that house-hunting would land him inside a big fish, sweep him skyward in a bird's beak, or get him clutched in the death grip of a jet-propelled Octopus!

In telling this engaging life story of a Hermit Crab, Mr. Holling again presents an informative panorama — this time, tide pools along our beaches where Pagoo and myriad creatures live and reproduce their kind in the rocking rhythms of the sea. Twenty brilliant, full-color plates and exquisitely detailed marginal drawings illustrate a book that is a treasure to read and to own.

Hardcover with dust jacket

Edition/Year: first edition, 1957, Houghton Mifflin Company

Condition: Good vintage condition

Dimensions: 11" x 9"