Stained-glass crab coloring page with coral, starfish, bubbles, and small fish in a reef scene

Stained-Glass Crab in a Busy Reef

A wide-shelled crab raises patterned claws among branching coral, round sponges, starfish, bubbles, and tiny fish.

🎨 How to color it

Color the crab’s shell in coral red and apricot, the branching coral in teal and sea green, the starfish in golden yellow, and the tiny fish in bright blue. Use sharp colored pencils for the stained-glass sections, filling each shell plate and coral branch from the edges toward the middle. Try making the bubbles pale lavender so they look like secret little windows between the crab’s claws.

The story behind this coloring page

Larkin’s Secret Bubble Window — Under the sponge reef, Larkin kept one claw on his warm sand den and one eye on Mrs. Whelk’s dim window. Read the full story →

Under the sponge reef, Larkin kept one claw on his warm sand den and one eye on Mrs. Whelk’s dim window. She needed a moon-pearl for her lamp, and Larkin had promised to fetch one before the tide turned silver. The trouble was, moon-pearls grew past the tickly coral maze, where shrimp snapped like tiny doors. “I’ll be quick,” Larkin whispered, though the water tasted sharp and cold beyond home.

He squeezed between tube sponges, paid a shiny scale to a guard-fish, and hurried on. No moon-pearl waited in the pearl grass. Only one ordinary bubble clung beneath a starfish, wobbling with a soft glup. Nobody checked bubbles; they popped, they drifted, they were nothing. But Larkin lifted it gently, and inside shone a pearl no bigger than a wink.

He carried it home under his shell, gave it to Mrs. Whelk while she slept, and tucked his empty claw back into the sand. Next time you spot the little bubble near the crab’s claws, keep the secret: someone generous has already passed by.