Barnacle Bay - (Little Habitats) by Jana Curll

Book Synopsis

"Perfect for fans of the visual style and humor of Ben Clanton's Narwhal and Jelly, and also a useful introduction to marine habitats and sea life for classroom units and individual interest."--School Library Journal

This hilarious new graphic novel from the Little Habitats series explores the ecosystem of a bay and the marine creatures and plant life that call it home.

Crab is fed up with the bay. Each day is the same; nobody cares for him or appreciates his sense of humor. So he's leaving. Just when he is about to go, he bumps into Larva, who is looking for a home. Crab agrees to show Larva around the bay, exploring its many places and residents, on his way out.

Together, Crab and Larva visit the sea kelp, a fine shell-ection of oysters, mussels, clams, and a bickering group of sea anemones, amongst many more neighbors in the bay.

Will Larva find the perfect spot to settle here? And if he does, what will Crab do?

Designed for kids aged 6-9, Barnacle Bay features:

Science-based information about marine life reviewed by experts

Fun facts about underwater creatures and plant life

Brightly colored graphic style illustrations

Packed with humor, playful jokes, and fun facts about marine life, this beautifully illustrated graphic novel dives into the fascinating world hidden within this tiny, often overlooked, ecosystem.

Book 1 in the Little Habitats series!

In a big world, we can often overlook the importance of being little! This series of graphic novels for young readers aims to introduce children to nature's small and vital ecosystems. Full of humor and hijinks, each book in the series features a heartwarming story set in a different habitat, with accompanying fact pages throughout. The familiar becomes fantastic as we zoom in on these overlooked creatures and communities, and prepare to laugh out loud as we explore the environments that they inhabit.

Review Quotes

"Perfect for fans of the visual style and humor of Ben Clanton's "Narwhal and Jelly," and also a useful introduction to marine habitats and sea life for classroom units and individual interest."
--School Library Journal

"Pun-tastic introductions to kelp, sea stars, shellfish, and other residents of ocean shallows...Readers will readily absorb a substantial dose of nutritious facts...[and] slap-happy seafloor pun-ditry."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Information-packed ... with a few comedic asides sprinkled throughout ... [a] cheerful introduction to marine life."
--Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Jana Curll (she/her) is an illustrator and graphic designer based on the West Coast of Canada. She wanders, creates and raises her family on the traditional territories of the shishálh Nation, on the coastline of the Salish Sea. She has worked as a designer at Science World, Vancouver, and as an associate art director at Kidzsmart Communications. Her illustrators have appeared on books, magazines, toys, activity books, apps, maps, and everything in between. Jana is the 2021 winner of the SCBWI's Don Freeman illustrator grant. Her book Mountain and Cloud was shortlisted for the 2025 Waterstones Children's Book Prize.