Penny Repstock
About the Book
Full of heart, friendship, and important lessons about empathy and kindness. Oscar the Oyster is a perfect book to share with kids who are ready to come out of their own “shells” and learn to appreciate what makes them special.
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Oscar the Oyster can’t swim through the open sea like a shark or fly over the water like a seagull. In fact, he can’t move at all—he is stuck to a rock in a tide pool. He had always been happy and proud of the home he’d made there for himself until one day a mean hermit crab mocks him and he begins to feel less confident and starts to worry about what other creatures think of him.
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Luckily for Oscar, he meets a couple of new friends who remind him that it’s what’s inside that counts. Samantha the sea snail and Stanley the starfish both have their own limitations, but together they discover that treasure isn’t something you find buried at the bottom of the ocean; the real treasure is found in the love they have for themselves and each other. ​
Penny Repstock
Penny Repstock loves exploring tide pools and admiring the creatures who call them home. Since childhood, she has enjoyed reading stories about animals and imagining life as seen through their eyes. A lifelong nature-lover, Penny enjoys gardening, hiking, and camping. She lives in a small village called Woss on Vancouver Island with her husband of thirty-five years. Oscar the Oyster is her first book.
Fun Facts
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
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Many years ago I sat at my favourite ‘wild and beautiful place on the Pacific coast where the water is very cold’. As I sat there listening to the waves rolling over the stones and pebbles on the beach and the looking out over the rocky outcrops jutting up from the ocean, Oscar, Samantha and Stanley started to take shape in my mind. They have waited for more than 20 years for their story to be told and I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as I have enjoyed finally bringing them to life.
BUILDING THOSE SHELLS!
How creatures like oysters, sea snails and barnacles build their shells is quite fascinating. It really makes you appreciate how complex and intricate the whole procedure is. If you would like to read more about this process, the below link is a good place to start.
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https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-how-do-shells-get-made-111072
WHAT IS THAT SNAIL SLIME MADE OF?
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Snails and slugs ... you can always tell where they have recently travelled by that ‘trail’ they leave behind them. And if you have ever had the experience of handling one of these creatures then you know how hard it is to get that slime off your hands! But what is it made of exactly? The below link provides a good description of what snail slime is made of. Good thing Samantha can make it!
https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-what-is-snail-slime-and-why-is-it-shiny-192424
STANLEY’S ARM
For quite some time now, scientists have had a pretty good idea of how creatures like starfish and lizards re-grow detached parts but it has been more of a mystery on how they can detach those limbs when they need to.
During my research into this phenomenon. I found this link which explains the process pretty well and which I used as the basis for Stanley’s explanation on how he felt when it happened.
https://www.popsci.com/environment/starfish-limb-regeneration/
DO THOSE TEENY PLANKTON REALLY GLOW?
Do all of those zillions and bazillions of plankton glow if they are disturbed by something like the rain at night? It is a beautiful sight to see if you are lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time.
The following link describes more about how and why this can happen.
https://askabiologist.asu.edu/glow-dark-plankton
DO HERMIT CRABS ACTUALLY LINE UP TO EXCHANGE SHELLS?
One of the more intriguing bits of information I came upon while researching hermit crabs became part of the story. The idea that hermit crabs would like up to exchange shells was something I never knew before and I thought it was just too cool to leave out.
If you find it hard to believe as well, just click on the link below to learn more.
https://www.discovermagazine.com/hermit-crabs-line-up-by-size-to-exchange-shells-11313
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