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Review by
Louella Moreland
Jennifer L. Holm has given readers a remarkable story this year: "Turtle
in Paradise." The story is set in 1935, America's Great Depression. Young
readers are immersed in a history that even their parents are too young to
remember. Through Ms. Holm's gifted pen come people and events that breathe
life into a historical period that brought out both the best and worst of
human nature.
Readers begin their journey of discovery on Turtle's ride from New Jersey
to the Florida Keys. Her mother, Sadie, has taken a job in New Jersey as a
housekeeper with Mrs. Budnick, who does not like children. Mama's newest
boyfriend, a salesman named Archie, can't let Turtle stay with him at a
gentleman's boarding house. Turtle is disappointed because Archie seems
different from Mama's other boyfriends, who broke her heart. The situation
is desperate until Mama decides to send Turtle to stay with Aunt Minerva
Curry in Key West.
Unfortunately, Turtle arrives there before Mama's letter, and Aunt Minnie
is far from delighted to add Turtle to her household of boys, with the
meager earnings she has coming in from doing washings. Turtle's cousins --
Beans, Buddy and Kermit -- are about as excited to have her living there as
a dog with fleas. The dog Termite can't stand her cat Smokey. Turtle just
wants to go home. This place is just too strange.
However, as the summer progresses, she meets the sponge harvester, Slow
Poke, and finds out she has a grandmother who is still alive. She can't
understand why her mother didn't tell her very much of the place that had
been her home or the people she left behind when she traveled north.
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Holm's characters are drawn so well we can almost believe we have
met them. There are the cousins: scrappy Beans, who runs a baby care
service called the Diaper Gang, Kermit, whose health has been
affected by scarlet fever; and baby Buddy, who is not yet
toilet-trained. There are also Beans' friends Ira and Pork Chop.
Adults are just as well-developed, from smooth-talking Archie and
happy-go-lucky Slow Poke to grouchy Nanna Philly and overworked Aunt
Minnie. If you read closely enough, you will even find a reference
to a famous author of the time period who wants to write about the
children's adventure of finding a buried treasure.
It is, however, the character of Turtle that stays with the
reader very strongly. She is a girl made older than her years by
being the real adult to her rather flighty mother. Self-assured and
capable of taking care of herself, she is the one longing for a
place to call home and finding a family that will love her with all
her flaws. Turtle is looking for a "Hollywood ending," while being
quite sure that in reality one does not exist. Along with her, we
wish it too, but are quite content when life just gives us people to
care about and love.
Basing the story on her own grandmother's life in the Keys, Ms.
Holm's novel gives readers a strong dose of historical writing,
combining pirate tales and hurricanes in a mixture as sweet as the
sugar apple ice cream eaten by the Curry children, and as tart as
the Spanish limes that still grow in the Keys today.
Don't miss this excellent story. You can find it and others by
Jennifer Holm at the Lincoln Public Library, 725 Pekin St.
[Text copied from file received from
Louella Moreland,
Lincoln Public Library District]
(Ms. Lou's blog:
lincolnpubliclibraryupdates.blogspot.com) |
