Turtles In My Sandbox (Arbordale Collection) - Hardcover

Jennifer Keats Curtis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 097688237X ISBN 13: 9780976882374

Publisher: Arbordale Publishing, LLC, 2006

Synopsis

Imagine finding turtle eggs in your sandbox! When a mother diamondback terrapin lays eggs in a young girl’s sandbox, the girl becomes a “turtle-sitter” to help the babies safely hatch. She raises the teeny hatchlings until they become big enough to fend for themselves in the wild. Then, with the help of experts, she releases them. Along the way, she learns about these unique animals and that she has made an important contribution to their survival. The “For Creative Minds” educational section includes terrapin fun facts and a turtle habitat craft.

About this title

About the Author

Award-winning nature author Jennifer Keats Curtis is frequently found among students and teachers, talking about literacy and conservation. In addition to Moonlight Crab Count, After A While Crocodile: Alexa's Diary, The Lucky Litter: Wolf Pups Rescued from Wildfire, the Animal Helpers series, Baby Owl's Rescue, Kali's Story (Children's Choice Book Award 2015), Salamander Season, Primate School, and Turtles In My Sandbox for Arbordale, some of Jennifer's other recent titles include Seahorses, Osprey Adventure and Saving Squeak: The Otter Tale. She lives in Maryland with her family and a wide variety of pets.

Emanuel (Manny) Schongut (Christmas Eve Blizzard and Turtles in my Sandbox) is a prolific, multi-faceted freelance illustrator who works in children's books, book covers, textbook illustration, editorial art, posters, and advertising art - essentially he does it all!. Some of his numerous clients include Masterpiece and Mystery Theater, Public Television, New York Magazine, and New York Times Sunday Magazine. His cover art and/or illustrations grace books from a wide variety of book publishers including Harper & Row, MacMillan, Doubleday, Morrow, Green Willow Books, and now Arbordale. In addition to his own artwork, Manny taught reportorial art and figure drawing at Pratt Institute in New York for several years. He now illustrates and teaches in the San Francisco Bay area.

Reviews

Grade 1-3–When a diamondback terrapin lays 10 pink eggs in Maggie's backyard sandbox, the resourceful girl seeks help from local experts and agrees to become a turtle-sitter. She and her mother wait for the babies to hatch and then care for them until it's time to set them free in their ocean habitat. The author's information is correct but her prose is awkward and lacks drama. The illustrations are average in quality and often don't accurately reflect the text. For example, Mama Turtle is described as having sharp black claws, but Schongut depicts them as white in every instance. Also, in a spread in which Curtis describes the differences among the nine hatchlings, the picture portrays them as nearly identical. Back matter includes a craft, but the instructions are poor, and the activity is unlikely to engage kids.–Daisy Porter, San Jose Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Early one morning in June, Mama Turtle--a diamondback terrapin--silently swam along the bay's shore. Now and then, her head poked above the cool waves. Below the water, her webbed feet moved quickly. Her belly was full of eggs. She wanted to lay those eggs on the beach close to where she had been born.

Mama turtle swam toward the shoreline. After checking for animals that might hurt her, she used her sharp black claws to pull herself out of the water and onto the muddy bank."

Edition details

• Publisher: Arbordale Publishing, LLC
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 097688237X
• ISBN 13: 9780976882374
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Emanuel Schongut
• Number of pages: 32