Kermit was not truly a hermit crab, but he was indeed a hermit. This bad-tempered, selfish old Scrooge of a crab lived all to himself in a cave under the rocks off Monterey Bay.

One day his greedy ways led him into trouble, and near catastrophe. If it hadn't been for a small boy, that would have been the end of old Kermit. So the old crab owes his life to the boy.

Repaying such an enormous debt takes Kermit on a wild adventure all the way to the shark infested depths of the ocean, then finally high into the sky on the crab's very first flying trip.

As reviewers have said of Bill Peet's other popular and colorful picture stories, this is a bright, bouncy animal story with amusing illustrations that is as much fun for those who read it as for the little ones who look and listen.

From the dust jacket