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We just finished the most amazing book ever called Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm! This is a 2011-2012 Bluebonnet Book that has also been given a Newberry Award. If you love a book that leaves you hanging at every chapter, this book is for you! We would like to recommend this book to other 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teachers as a read-aloud, because it will teach your students a life lesson at the end of each chapter. As a class throughout the book, we laughed, felt scared, emotional, sad, frightened, shocked, worried, and sometimes irate, always wondering what would happen next!
In this book, Turtle is a young girl who lives with her mother, a housekeeper, and doesn’t have enough money to take care of her daughter. So, Sadiebelle, Turtle’s mom, sends Turtle to Key West to live with her Aunt Minnie and her Conch cousins. When Turtle moves in with her rotten, boy cousins (one who always wets his pants), things begin to change! Turtle’s cousins: Beans, Kermit, and Buddy are a hard-headed group who give Turtle a really hard time. Beans is the sarcastic show-off who leads the Diaper Gang. Kermit can be very nice, and has a weak heart. Buddy, the youngest, loves to play marbles and always asks Turtle to play with him.
Our class loved this book, because we loved the emotions of each of the characters, and felt like we were in the story. Jennifer L. Holm titles each chapter with an interesting idea that makes you want to read more! For example, there was a chapter titled “Lying, Stealing, No-Good Kids.” This made us want to predict why she called the kids liars, stealers, and no good!!!
This historical fiction book happens to end with a terrible secret and a bit of treasure! Want to know more? Read Turtle in Paradise to find out!
Check out this book at the RBE Library!
This review was written and submitted by Mrs. Smith’s 3rd grade class!
I love Babymouse and Squish but I haven’t read any of Jenny Holmes other books! I keep hearing about this one so I’ll have to add it to my TBR. 🙂
I adored this book – loved the characters, setting, themes, plot. Just wonderful! Have you tried any of Jennifer Holm’s other historical fiction novels? We also really enjoyed both of the May Amelia books. There’s a great audiobook for Our Only May Amelia. Thanks for this great review!