Customer Reviews

Florida's Fabulous Seashells: And Other Seashore Life

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a Michigan snowbird. I didn't know one shell from another until I purchased this highly interesting, informative book. I have derived many hours of pleasure from looking at the colorful, spectacular photgraphs of the amazing creatures that make the depicted shells. When one combines these with a text that is readable, finely detailed, and which closely follows the photographs, a book that should be part of any Florida visitor's library is obtained. Get it, and read it, before you go, and enhance your trip!!

I might note that my high recommendation extends to all books in this series. Since purchasing this and other volumes in the series, I have been able to discard a lot of lesser quality materials purchased on earlier trips, and yet increase the quality of my library.

If you want to know your whelks from your wentletraps from your limpets, then this book can help. Besides gorgeous color photos of shells, it gives lots of info (helpfully boxed for easy reading). Find out why left-handed shells are an oddity, how to make coquina broth, why you hear the sea when you put a shell to your ear and other tidbits.
The book includes "Other Seashore Life," so browsers discover the varieties of crabs, hard-tube worms, sea anemones, sea slugs, starfish and sea beans. It even discusses sharks teeth, fossil shells and different colored beach sands.
Really a great book for beach trips on both an adult level and to use with children. The colorful photos and odd facts will grab their imagination, getting them interested in nature.

I put this book in my suitcase every time I vacation in Florida. It's perfect for the casual (but enthusiastic!) beach comber, containing many color photos of Florida shells along with brief but interesting and informative passages on each type of shell. This book is an easy and enjoyable read for all ages, and is NOT a dry, encyclopedic identification guide. The book also contains information on the creatures found in and near the surf, like crabs, jellyfish, etc. And, best of all, many mysterious beach finds are identified for you: sea pork, sea beans, devil's purse and so on. Just about anything and everything you find on a Florida beach is identified, from seaweed to seashells. (The exception being birds, but there is a separate book for that!) If you are vacationing on Sanibel Island, this is a great shell guide.

We use this book on all trips to the beach. I am now purchasing 4 for gifts. It contains wonderful photos and descriptions of Florida shells, as well as, where to find them, and how to clean them. It gives great quick information regarding much of Florida's Seashore Life. It is an excellent reference- written well for a quick reference. I thumb through the beautiful photos over and over and never get bored! Truly a 5 star book at a very reasonable price.

My five-year old loves loves visiting her grandparents in Naples, FL. Her two favorite activities are swimming and collecting shells along the beach shore. This wonderfully informative, thorough, and beautifully illustrated guide has helped her (and me) to learn all about the various sea shells that are native to Florida. I have looked at other books about seashells but this one is by far, the BEST! If you are planning a trip to Florida and you enjoy collecting sea shells, this one is the only guide you'll need! Btw, we paid the same price for one from the Audobon Society but it left out too many common ones found in FL like kitten's paw ! I look forward to reading the other books in this wonderful series.

Wow, what a fantastic book! We bought this book while we were in Florida because we wanted more information on the shells we collected. We picked right! The book is packed full of information and the pictures are beautiful! We liked it so well we purchased another copy for a birthday gift! You will want to display it for all to see.

While there are some stunning photos in this book, it is only a quick snapshot of what one is likely to encounter on Florida's beaches. If you are serious about identifying ANY shell that you find, I would recommend the Peterson's Guide to Shells instead (make sure you buy the volume that refers to the region in which you live). If you are looking for something a bit less technical that doesn't include those rare forms that you are unlikely to come across, Witherington's Florida's Living Beaches is much better (it contains Witherington's Florida Shells as well as many other things). Unlike the other Fabulous Florida books, this one is far from comprehensive.

This great book is packed with trivia, great photos, humor and education. The kids in our family love looking at the pictures and I love the color photos identifying not only many of Florida's seashells but also other mysterious matter that you may happen to find on the beach. I've read it over and over and still find something new each time I read it. There's a section on cleaning shells, how shells reproduce (this is mind-blowing!). What is so interesting is many shells are shown with their inhabitants inside so you now know exactly what kind of animal made that beautiful shell you now have in your hand. The book covers areas in Florida such as the famous Sanibel, as well as other beaches on the West Coast, the Keys and South Florida. You'll discover which shell is worth thousands of dollars, which lump of stuff found on the beach is more valuable than gold and so much more. I've ordered extra books for my nieces and nephews because it is so rich in knowledge.

We own the set of Florida guides (trees, birds, animals, etc) and this is my favorite one of all (and I love them all!). We love to collect shells on our beach walks and I can identify them easily with the color photos in this book plus learn a few interesting facts. Our visitors seem to enjoy the little tidbits I can share when we are beachcombing and that make each shell have a personality all its own. I go to this book often to figure out what "treasure" we've brought home from the beach.

I was completely surprised when this book arrived at the size of it. For the price, I expected a small book, but it's quite large and full of beautiful pictures. My kids are crazy about the beach and we have amassed a large collection of shells over the years, so it was a lot of fun identifying the ones that we already had. We also took it on our last trip to the beach, which made shell collecting a lot of fun! This is also a very beautiful book even if you aren't going to the beach. If you are a beach goer or a beach lover (or both) you should pick this book up!