Hello Sandra and Chloe,

For a young beginning collector, a simple book with good color pictures
and a minimum of text is the best way to go.  The Golden Guide series
includes a volume on Seashells of the World, which should be "everyone's
first shell book" in my opinion.  It has excellent clear pictures of
about 500 of the best-known species from around the world.  If you can't
find it locally, there are places to get the Golden Guides online.  Just
do a web search for "golden guides".

For something a bit more comprehensive, I would recommend the Golden
Field Guide series.  "A Guide to Field Identification - Seashells of
North America", by R. Tucker Abbott, from that series, is excellent.  It
has a bit more text and description, but is still basically a "picture
guide", with excellent illustrations.  Of course it is not worldwide in
scope - just North America.  If you are interested largely in American
shells, this includes hundreds more species then the Golden Guide, which
is more of an overview.

There are many excellent websites on shells and shelling, but frankly,
trying to identify the specimen in your hand by going through the
thousands of shell pictures on websites is liable to be more frustrating
than helpful, especially if you don't already have a fairly good idea of
what the shell is, at least to family level.

Regards,
Paul M.