Simple book report concepts and analysis

¶ … contact our customer service department at the Secret of the Spotted Shell is both a mystery story and a coming-of-age story. The mystery part of the plot is driven by the question of what is so special about the writing on the spotted shell of the title. The secret is apparently so terrible, it seems to have forced a young man going on a secret mission to rescue a friend in Vietnam. The novel also tells the story of a young girl who is desperately trying to create a new family for herself in the Virgin Islands. The is anxious to solve the mystery not just because she is curious about its solution, or even because her cousin is directly involved, but because she also wishes to create a sense of peace in her new home.

The story begins as Wendy Williams is sent away to live with her relatives in the Virgin Islands because her father must go to Portugal on business. Her Aunt Elinor and Uncle Paul, however, don't give her a very warm reception. Her cousin, Gordon, who was fighting in Vietnam, has been lost on a helicopter flight he took to find a friend. His wife Marion spends all of her time in bed, crying. One night, Marion asks Wendy to get a particular shell from Gordon's rare shell collection. Because Wendy feels so out of place, she agrees without question. Marion believes the shell is the reason Gordon went Vietnam. She also believes the shell is the reason he went to find his friend and ultimately got lost on the mission.

On the shell, there is lettering the two of them cannot read. They must contain a message. Marion hides the shell in her bedroom and makes Wendy promise to tell no one about the shell. But then a man named Mark Mears comes to the Villa and steals a similar shell from Gordon's collection, perhaps mistaking it for the one hidden in Marion's room. All the while Wendy can't stop thinking about Mr. Helgerson, who arrived on the same plane as Wendy, is also very much interested in Gordon's shell collection.