Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm

Title: Turtle in Paradise
Author: Jennifer L. Holm
Genre: Fiction
Major Awards: Newbery Honor Book (2011); Golden Kite Award for Fiction
Age: 9-13

This book is about a young girl who dreams of living in Paradise. Turtle is a young girl growing up through the Great Depression, and she's a typical eleven-year-old girl although she hates Shirley Temple. She believes life isn't what it's like in the movies and knows that it's complicated, messy and sometimes there aren't happy endings. Her mom is a hard-working housekeeper ad her latest boss doesn't allow children so Turtle gets sent to live with her Aunt Minnie, her mother's sister, in Florida. Growing up she was always mocked for never having her own house, but when she got to Florida, she realizes that the place is basically a dump. Turtle showed up on her aunt's doorstep and took her in even though she hadn't seen her sister in years. During her time here she got to know her cousin Beans and hung out with his band of friends called the Diaper Gang, they were called this because they took care of the bad babies in town. At first they weren't s welcoming of her because their number 1 rule was no girls allowed. But they eventually warm up to each other and become good friends, after all they're family.One day they're asked to take Nana Philly her lunch, Turtle didn't know she was her grandmother until later on. At first Nana Philly seemed mean, and she couldn't talk or walk since she was paralyzed on one side. She hated kids but Turtle was determined to get to know her and have her like her. She would take her lunch everyday and most times got nothing in return, until one day she found what seemed to be a treasure map of some sort. The treasure was supposed to belong to Black Caesar, a notorious pirate. She wasn't sure if it was real but insisted the Diaper Gang help her. They reach an island along the key and everything seemed to be a bust at fist and most of them were ready to give up, until turtle tripped over a rock that had a C on it, that's it they found the treasure, only problem was that their boat was gone because Pork Chop forget to drop the anchor. They were rescued by Slow Poke and Ollie, who Turtle had worked with. The treasure they found ended being worth $20,000 dollars divided six ways in the end. After hearing that her daughter had been missing her mother was on her way. When her mother arrived she found out that her mom married Archie, a salesman, who wasn't like any other man her mom had been with, or so we thought. He promised to buy them their dream hose and finally give Turtle the happy ending she had been longing for. As their saying their goodbyes, Archie doesn't meet them at their meeting point, as it turns out he ditched them and went to Cuba, he even took Turtle's fortune as well. But it doesn't end so badly, since her mom had already quit her job and they didn't have anywhere else to go, they were able to stay with Aunt Minnie. Turtle was actually ok with it because staying with her family and the friends she made in Key West ended up being her Paradise. She found her Paradise after all, it actually was in front of her the whole time.

I really enjoyed this book and think students would too. I think everyone should read this book actually, it's a heartwarming story of a girl getting her paradise and actually being happy. I think I would most certainly use this story in my classroom. I would definitely have it has a class read-aloud. I think this book is perfect for students in 3rd-8th grade.
- Peace. Love. Giraffes.

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