A Japanese mother living in the United Kingdom created a Japanese-English bilingual picture book to help alleviate her grief over the sudden death of her 4-year-old son.
Fuyuko Morimura wrote the book, titled "Kara o Nakushita Chiisana Yadokari" ("The Little Hermit Crab Who Lost His Shell") and published by Gentosha Inc., to deal with the sorrow over the loss of her son. It tells the story of a lost hermit crab searching for its family.
The story's unnamed first-person protagonist is a little boy who loves his brother Soh, who is two years older. They always play and eat meals together. But one day Soh suddenly disappears. The younger brother begins sneaking out of his bed every night to search for his older brother. He has one thought in his head: "Where's Soh?" During one of his quests, he meets a hermit crab on the beach.
