Turtle in Paradise
Alethea Allarey
Written by Jennifer L. Holm
Random House Books for Young Readers, 2010
Synopsis
Turtle is an 11- year old girl whose mother is a housekeeper. When she takes a job with a woman who won’t allow children, her mother sends her to live with an aunt and several boy cousins in Key West, Florida. It is 1935, and times are hard on everyone. Turtle has to adjust to a very different way of living… and get along with her rowdy cousins and their friends.
Meet the author
Three of Jennifer L. Holm’s books have been Newbery Honor Books, including Turtle in Paradise. She is a New York Times bestselling children’s author. Holm was born in California in 1968 and was raised in Pennsylvania. Her father was a pediatrician and her mother was a pediatric nurse. She has four brothers.
Holm began writing when she was at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. After graduating she worked in New York as a broadcast producer of television commercials and music videos. Holm has written two graphic novel series with her brother Matthew Holm–the Babymouse series and the Squish series. She has also written a series called The Stink Files with her husband, Jonathan Hamel. Her first novel Our Only May Amelia not only was a Newbery Honor Book, but it was also turned into a stage play performed in Oregon. Holm lives in northern California with her husband and two children.
You can visit her at her website at www.jenniferholm.com.
Hooks
- Have you ever gone to visit relatives you’ve never met? What if you had to stay there?
- Have you ever been the “new kid”? How did you feel? What did you do to “fit in”?
- Have you ever been to a place that was really different from where you live? How did you feel? Did you like it?
Connections
Other books by Jennifer L. Holm
Our Only May Amelia. Harper Trophy,1996.
The Creek. Harper Trophy, 2003.
Boston Jane Trilogy. HarperCollins, 2001–2004.
The Stink File Series. HarperCollins, 2004–2005.
Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf: A Year Told Through Stuff. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2007.
Penny from Heaven. Yearling, 2007.
Babymouse Series. Random House, 2005 – 2012.
The Trouble with May Amelia. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2011.
Squish Series. Random House, 2010 – 2012.
Eighth Grade is Making Me Sick: Ginny Davis’s Year in Stuff. Harper Trophy, 2012.
Life in Florida
Draper, Sharon. The Birthday Storm. Scholastic, 2009.
Haworth, Danette. A Whole Lot of Lucky. Walker, 2012.
Holt, Kimberly Willis. The Piper Reed series. Henry Holt, 2008.
The Great Depression
Cochrane, Patricia A. Purely Rosy Pearl. Delacorte Press, 1996.
Cummings, Priscilla. Saving Grace. Dutton Children’s Books, 2003.
Littlesugar, Amy. Tree of Hope. Philomel Books, 1999.
Peck, Richard. A Year Down Yonder. Puffin, 2000.
Potato: A Tale from the Great Depression. National Geographic, 1997.
Wells, Rosemary. Wingwalker. Hyperion Books for Children, 2002.
For more information, please check the 2013-2014 Resource Guide - Intermediate.