David Grise, age 8, of Richmond, Kentucky, for his question:

How big is the biggest kind of clam?

His shell is big enough to make a bathtub for a baby. It may be a yard wide, or just one foot shorter than a third grade boy expects to be. The giant clam himself has a soft, clammy body and the huge, sturdy shells form the house in which he lives. Both shells together may weigh 500 pounds  which equals the weight of three fair sized men. His body has about 20 pounds of tasty meat, enough to provide the main course for a clambake , for several families. '

There are several giant clams in tropical seas. The biggest kind lives far across the Pacific Ocean where the tip of Asia dips down towards Australia. This stretch of ocean its strewn with the islands we call Indonesia. There are the islands of Java and Sumatra, Borneo and the Celebes and dozens of smaller isles and islets. They separate the Pacific from the Indian Ocean. Their shores are washed by warm, gentle waves. And in these shallow, tropical seas, the biggest of the giant clams makes his home.