Turtle in Paradise Another Good One From Jennifer Holm

Like Franki at A Year of Reading, I'm a big fan of Jennifer Holm. While I don't love Babymouse, I guess that makes me some sort of cold hearted monster, Penny From Heaven and Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf, are two of my all time favorites. So needless to say, I was pretty excited to see Turtle in Paradise on the new book shelf at my local library. I brought it home and it served as incentive to finish the book I was in so I could read it. I finished the book in about two hours and was not disappointed.

The story takes place in Depression Era Key West. Now I've always known that Key West has a culture all its own, but I have never read much about it, especially not in kids' books. When Turtle is taken to Key West to live with her mother's sister, it's a surprise to her Aunt Minnie. In the time of no email or telephones or internet, the mail was slow and inconsistent so Turtle actually arrives before her mother's letter telling everyone she is coming.

I like Turtle, she's spunky and tough and won't let anyone take advantage of her, even her conch cousins and their friends. It's a group of boys who remind me of Spanky and the Little Rascals and they run a babysitting business where they pick up crying babies and pull them around in a broken down wagon all day to give their mother's a rest. They also use their secret diaper rash remedy on the babys' bungies to ease their discomfort. Turns out the remedy is corn starch but you don't find that out until the end.

Jennifer Holm is awesome at writing about family relationships and Turtle in Paradise is no exception. Turtle's mom is a single parent who dates a lot of losers and works as a cleaning woman in wealthy homes, sometimes that works out for Turtle and sometimes it doesn't and her mom must move on to the next job. Even though Turtle's mom doesn't appear often in the book her presence is felt throughout and we learn that Turtle has been forced to become fairly self sufficient and make important decisions since her mom seems incapable of doing it on her own.

While in Key West, Turtle is introduce to a very old lady named Nana Philly who lives in a big run down house and scares all of the kids on the island. When Turtle is recruited to take her lunch she learns what a cantankerous old soul she is, but she doesn't scare Turtle. When she tries to, Turtle stands up to her and eventually the two become friends, sort of. Turtle finds out Nana Philly's story and some interesting history about how the two of them are connected.

All in all, Turtle in Paradise is a perfect, quick, summer read. I loved the humor and the gang of kids, so much personality. My only problem with the book was that it ended too quickly, I wanted more closure to some of the story lines but didn't get them. The author's notes at the end were extremely interesting to me, finding out that Jennifer Holm's family can trace themselves back to Key West and some of the characters are based on family members and other real folks from her past.

Other Reviews:
Welcome to My Tweendom
Bookends

Looking for Newbery: The Predictions

It's funny what a difference a year makes in this whole book awards game. Last year at this time pretty much everybody was in love with When You Reach Me for the Newbery and The Lion and the Mouse for the Caldecott. After looking over a few of the blogs recently it's pretty clear that nothing is very clear! The predictions are all over the place. With that being said, today is the day we take our shot and name our picks for the Newbery.

Bill's picks:

Since I don't have any idea what the winner will be and really don't have a strong feeling for a book this year, I'm going to follow Franki's example and list books that I would love to win something this year. I'm really just hoping I've read the winner and it doesn't come totally out of left field.

Newbery:
Countdown by Deborah Wiles

Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer Holm

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine

Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord

Caldecott:

Chalk by Bill Thomson

City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems Illustrated by Jon J. Muth

Tiny Little Fly by Michael Rosen Illustrated by Kevin Waldron

A Pirate's Guide to First Grade by James Preller Illustrated by Greg Ruth

Here Comes the Garbage Barge by Jonah Winter Illustrated by Red Nose Studios

Boss Baby by Marla Frazee


Karen's Picks -

Much like Bill, I have no idea what will win this year. There are many outstanding books that I have read this past year, and even these past two weeks. But I still truly have no idea which one will win the Newbery or be one of the Honor books.

That being said, there are several books that have truly spoken to me for a variety of reasons. Those are the books that will be my picks today (in no particular order).

• The Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter
  

• Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord (a huge crowd favorite at our GREat Discussion - a parent/child book group)
  

• The Dark Emperor by Joyce Sidman (not my idea of a typical Newbery winner, but it has a stunning text)

• Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper (current read aloud for our class)
  

• The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

• A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

• Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes (literally just finished this one!)

• Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer Holm
  

I don't read as many picture books as Bill does, so I will take a pass on even guessing what might win the Caldecott award, and defer to his predictions. Looking at both of our Newbery prediction lists, though, I'm pretty amazed at how much we agree on this year. Can't wait for the announcements to be made nice and early Monday morning to see if being one of my favorites has anything to do with winning the Newbery. :)

We have had a fun two weeks reading books, reviewing them, and writing our Looking for Newbery series. Thanks so much for joining us for the fun!

Looking for Newbery Day 10: Turtle in Paradise

I would really love to see Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer Holm win something this year. To me, it's the perfect Newbery book, great writing, excellent story, engaging characters and most importantly...KID FRIENDLY!

I have put this book into the hands of a large number of students and all of them have loved the story. Each one passes it to a fried with glowing descriptions and the book is never on the shelf. Each student has a different reason for liking it, some of them pick out one of the characters that really speaks to them, some of them love the setting because they've visited Key West, and some of them love it because they are fans of Jennifer Holm's other titles. Whatever the reason, all of them love the story. It's fun and entertaining with enough twists to keep the reader moving.

I wrote a full review of the book back in June and called it the perfect summer time read. Well now that the thermometer isn't going much above 30 and the sun is a rare sight in Columbus, I'm calling it the perfect winter time read. Just start reading and picture yourself on the sun drenched beaches of Key West, you won't be disappointed!

Other Reviews:
BSCkids
Semicolon
Dog Ear
Not Acting My Age (cool blog name)

I Read It!

Like Karen I was shocked at the announcement of Moon Over Manifest. Not because it wasn't deserving, but because it came out of no where. As I compiled lists of possible winners for kids to read, it never crossed the radar. In conversations at Cover to Cover, it never crossed the radar. After I finished reading it, I liked it, but it never crossed the radar.

I guess that's what makes this Looking for Newbery so fun. Some years we nail it and everyone knows before the big announcement. Then there are years like this one when we are totally surprised and everyone walks around saying "Where did that come from?"

I can proudly say that I read 3 out of 5, including the winner. I also read and blogged about Turtle in Paradise and One Crazy Summer. I have Dark Emperor waiting for pick up at Cover to Cover, so that has to count for something.

As far as the Caldecott, I was completely out. I actually read Interrupting Chicken in THE PIT and liked it, but sort of forgot about it. I like it a lot.

It appears you enjoyed our series again, Karen and I are still debating whether we'll be doing it next year, but vote is in the yes column.

Reflection on Looking for Newbery

Well, here is the short summary:

Of the honor books, I had read Dark Emperor, One Crazy Summer, and Turtle in Paradise. They were all excellent reads, and I'm happy for all their authors.

One honor book, I had heard of, but hadn't read. I will be getting my hands on Heart of a Samurai as soon as possible.

But the winner was the one that really threw me for a loop. With all the online conversations and mock Newbery awards that I followed intently, I can honestly say I had never even heard of Moon Over Manifest. Surprises can be good things, though, and I am anxious to get my hands on this book as well. I just put in my Amazon 2-day delivery order tonight! So even though the winner was a total surprise for me, I really look forward to reading it.

One of the best things I read in all the twitter chatter today, was a poem written by Kate Messner, which honors all the authors that wrote books in 2011, whether they won an award or not. When I think of how grateful I am every time I get my hands on a new book that I just love and can't wait to share with my students, this poem really hits the nail on the head.

So, my final thoughts on this day are merely to leave with you Kate's lovely poem . Enjoy!