Holm has a real talent for bringing history to life through interesting main characters, and Turtle might just be the most memorable of them all. It shares the same memorable writing style as Holms's other Newbery Honor winning historical fiction novels, Our Only May Amelia and Penny from Heaven. (Had this book been given a more colorful cover, I'd probably have read it when it came out.)Ĭomplaints about the cover aside, though, this book is a quick and enjoyable read that will appeal to both boys and girls in the upper elementary grades. Sure, there are serious moments, but none deserving of such a bland adult-looking cover. Turtle in Paradise is funny, entertaining, and a little bit irreverent (with all its references to baby bottoms) and the writing is mostly spirited and joyful, without a lot of tedious self-reflection on the part of Turtle. The cover suggests an emotional and contemplative story akin to Kevin Henkes's Junonia, or Karen Day's A Million Miles From Boston, and this is anything but that. It is attractive enough, aesthetically, but it does absolutely nothing to sell this story, whose main character is a street-wise, smart-mouthed, and sassy eleven-year-old. My first comment about this book is that the cover is really poor. Though the boys initially don't want Turtle to be a part of their club, she soon finds herself caught up in all of their adventures, from working for a rumrunner and taking lunch to the cantankerous Nana Philly to accidentally getting stranded on an island during a hurricane and finding a buried treasure.
Here Turtle meets the Diaper Gang, a group of boys, including her own cousins, who are known around the neighborhood for their seemingly magical cure for diaper rash.
Unable to afford to leave the job, she sends Turtle to stay with relatives in Key West, Florida. Times are hard in 1935, and Turtle's mother, a housekeeper, finds herself working for a woman who despises children.
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