All About Turtles

All About Turtles

From School Library JournalGrade 1-4-As in the previous titles in this series, Arnosky draws on his personal experiences and observations to share his fascination for the natural world with children. The realistic, colorful illustrations depict a wide variety of turtles, from the massive marine leatherbacks to the land-loving box turtle and the familiar painted turtle of freshwater ponds. This visual feast is accompanied by a simple text describing turtle physiology, habitats, lifestyles, and reproduction. An unfortunate lapse, however, is that there is no scale to indicate size comparison, which may confuse children not up on turtle physiology. Team this with Melvin Berger's less elegant (but still attractive) Look Out for Turtles! (HarperCollins, 1992) for a fine chelonian presentation.Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NYCopyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.From the author of the Crinkleroot series, a boldly illustrated picture book captures the traits and characteristics of land and sea turtles in their natural habitats.From Kirkus Reviews``Have you ever wondered about turtles?'' For readers who have wondered, this is an outstanding introduction. Arnosky provides a brief, informative text and beautiful, detailed full-color paintings with enormous appeal. He describes freshwater, salt water, and land-dwelling turtles, showing the differences in shell structure, patterns, anatomy, habitat, eggs, and diet. Only common names are given for the species illustrated, but many will be familiar. For example, freshwater turtles include the cooter, spotted, and painted turtles, while sea turtles depicted are the loggerhead, leatherback, and softshell. The author does not include size or range information. When specialized scientific language is used, the carefully placed drawings make clear what the author refers to. For example, drawings show the upper and lower turtle shell and are labeled ``carapace'' and ``plastron.'' There are also side views to help the reader tell a female turtle with convex plastron and the male turtle with concave plastron. Part of the ``All About'' series, this is an unusually appealing title by a fine science artist and author. Recommended with enthusiasm. (Nonfiction. 7-10)-- Copyright