Does A Fiddler Crab Fiddle? No! But fiddler crabs sure do some amazing things!
Starting with silly questions like the title, and moving on through increasinglyunlikely questions such as “do fiddler crabs ride a skateboard?,” and “do fiddler crabs eat pizza?,” children discover what fiddler crabs do. They don’t need a skateboard – they can move sideways so shore birds can’t catch them. They may not enjoy pizza, but they gobble up saltmarsh muck.
Using this question-and-answer format engages children immediately, and discovering just what fiddler crabs actually do satisfies their curiosity. This is the best kind of nonfiction – engaging, fun, and filled with the kinds of details that kids love.
Watch a video of the real fiddler crabs that inspired this book.
Reviews and Interviews
"Humorous and informative at the same time, always a winning combination. Co-authored by a scientist, written with an assured, light touch, this picture book has taught me more than I ever knew about fiddler crabs while entertaining me as well. Plus the pictures are hilarious!"
-- Jane Yolen, author of Owl Moon, How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?, and On Bird Hill
The humor is irresistible, and Sandford makes good use 
of it in his paintings. The opening, titular question is illustrated with a top-hatted crab playing a violin. Later, readers see crabs with hard hats building in sand, crabs with chef’s hats making pizza, crabs with sunglasses, skateboards, knitting needles, hockey sticks, and more. Cheerful and modestly informative, this will be most appreciated where these crabs are familiar. -- Kirkus
Does a Fiddler Crab Fiddle? poses the sort of questions very young children might indeed ask about fiddler crabs, beginning with the title query and then moving on to whimsical wondering, such as whether they ride skateboards, eat pizza or listen to the radio. Not surprisingly to adults, the answer to all of these questions is “no.” Demas and Roehrig augment that simple word with information about activities in which the crabs do engage. The book disguises science in a story and does a delightful job of it....The book is charmingly illustrated by John Sanford. His crabs are big and full of personality, like the text.
--The Recorder (Greenfield, MA)
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Mass Audubon Newsletter, July 27, 2017
"
Wellfleet Bay's Fiddler Crabs Star in New Children's Book"
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Provincetown Banner, Thursday, January 26, 2017
"Turning the Cape into children’s lit"
By Susan Blood
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The Bill Newman Show, WHMP Northampton, MA, November 30, 2016
Listen to Radio Interview
Daily Hampshire Gazette, Wednesday, November 30, 2016
"A family affair: Amherst writer and daughter co-author two children’s books"
By Steve Pfarrer
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Artemis Roehrig received her master's degree from the
Organismic and Evolutionary Biology program at the University of Massachusetts. She first became interested in fiddler crabs when she worked a Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. 
and the Animal Catchers, by Caroline Arnold. To bring words to life, John uses differentapproaches for each story to evoke mood, place, and the personality of characters.John and hiswife Frances live in Chicago, where he is a senior art director for children's publisher Cricket Media. While fiddler crabs are not native to Chicago, John notes that the crab spirit pervades the Brown Line elevated train every morning. For more information, go to www.sandfordarchive.com . 