I was born in 1987 so most likely this book was read to me around 1992 or 1993. It was a paper back, chapter book. It did not have pictures. I would guess it was a YA novel. There were kids, possibly sisters, in the story who have to fend for themselves while living without grown ups in a beach house. To survive they collect snails or cockles from the beach and learn how to cook them. It might be that they ran away from home or were abandoned by the adults. I don’t recall the rest of the context. There may have been an old telephone in the house which they were trying to fix to get in touch with someone. It was a little bit scary to me but mostly exciting. The book was super engaging to me – I loved books about wilderness survival and foraging for food, such as My Side of the Mountain. I loved the idea that they had to live off the land around them and the ocean.