The Book of Turtles

Ages 4 to 8, Grades P to 3

From National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestseller Sy Montgomery comes an ode to one of the most diverse, fascinating, and beloved species on the planet: turtles. With dazzling illustrations and emotionally engaging, fact-filled text, this picture book will speak to the wisdom these long-lived animals can lend.

Everyone loves turtles. And no wonder: long-lived, unhurried, and ancient, these shelled reptiles are fascinating.Turtles are also endlessly surprising. There are turtles with soft shells, turtles with googly eyes, turtles with necks longer than their bodies, and turtles whose shells glow in the dark!And each turtle, of each of the more than 300 kinds, is an individual. You’ll meet some of them here: Lonesome George, the last of his kind on Earth. And Myrtle, the 90-year-old green sea turtle, who has almost 7,000 followers on Facebook.        What questions might you ask a turtle? You’ll find many of the answers in this gorgeous compendium—and perhaps be inspired to help at a time when these reptiles, who evolved at the same time as the dinosaurs, face the deadliest dangers of their more than 240-million-year history.

About the Author

Researching her articles, films, scripts, and 33 books, National Book Award finalist Sy Montgomery has scuba-dived with sharks, cuddled with octopuses, slept next to a mother hippo and her baby, and been undressed by a wild orangutan. To inform this book, she and artist Matt Patterson helped rescue cold-stunned sea turtles on Cape Cod, raised baby painted turtles for release into the wild, and provided physical therapy for an injured, 42-pound wild snapping turtle named Fire Chief. They still regularly patrol a nesting site for native New England turtles against predators and volunteer at Turtle Rescue League in southern Massachusetts. Matt Patterson will do almost anything to make his paintings of wild animals as accurate and lifelike as possible. He’s been bitten by snapping turtles. He’s caught alligators with his bare hands from a kayak. He’s camped in the Everglades, traveled to Madagascar and Central America, and visited 48 US states. He’s delighted in it all. Matt's vivid, lifelike art has won national and international acclaim, including the Golden Turtle Award and the Roger Tory Peterson Wild American Art Award. He is grateful to use his talent to not only raise awareness about these gorgeous animals but help keep them alive on the planet we human newcomers are lucky to share with them.