Review of “Colin the Crab Finds a Treasure” by Tuula Pere

Score: 94+/100 (9.4+ out of 10)

Colin Crab stole our hearts last year with his positive, helpful, altruistic attitude!
He's the friend we'd all love to have.
He's the friend we'd all be lucky to have.
Where can we find a Colin Crab?
Do you have a Colin Crab in your life?

Leave it to Tuula Pere, the most prolific children's author in the history of our contest, to create a great, brilliant, and beautiful character like this.

In Colin the Crab Finds a Treasure, Colin is searching for something, and he's not sure what. It seems to be a typical day for Colin, and most of the book follows him as he goes about his day. As the sea town's handyman, Colin is in high demand. He has many chores and jobs around the town including shopping with Ozzie Octopus, helping Mrs. Catfish with repairs, and briefly babysitting Norma Newt's children so she can get some baking done.

It's this last encounter with the Newt family that really tugs on Colin's heartstrings. He realizes that he wants a family of his own, and perhaps a partner to have children with.

Despite having many around the town who care about and want him around, Colin is actually a bit of a loner at heart. He has no family in town. The others crabs (and his family) live far away. And most of his friends and acquaintances seem to just want something from Colin. You almost get the sense that they take him for granted and take advantage of him. This was apparent in the previous book in the series, in which the animals realized what life would be like without Colin's help.

Then, in the turning point of the book, a tidal wave sweeps a lone oyster named Priscilla into his life. Priscilla is alone and injured, so Colin (being a sweetheart) takes her home and cares for her while she recovers. Priscilla reveals that she is able to make pearls, and her newest pearl becomes the centerpiece of the book.

Priscilla believes that her ability to make pearls is the only thing special about her, however, Colin sees her as a great friend and values her true treasure: her friendship.

Unfortunately, others in the town, mainly Larry the Lobster, covet her physical treasure: the pearl. This creates the final conflict in the book.

Colin the Crab Finds a Treasure is every bit as beautiful and powerful as the last book. The illustrations by Roksolana Panchyshyn are gorgeous, some of the best in a Tuula Pere book!

The presentation of this book is truly outstanding. Despite the text being somewhat small (which is an issue in some other Pere books like Raspberry Red and Do You See Me in Nature?), the soft background colors and box-framing really help the text to stand out, making this an enjoyable reading experience.

Now, there was a time in the middle of this book that it started to drag. That was when Colin was running his errands. There didn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to these errands until much later in the book. At first, it just seemed like Colin was just doing stuff. It was only afterwards that we realized that the author was trying to portray how mundane, lonely, and loveless Colin's life really was. Colin clearly had a hole in his heart that needed to be filled.

The pairing between Colin and Priscilla is adorable and a candidate for Best Couple!

Check it out on Amazon!