A Sea Turtle Story

by Mary Maden, Vicki Wallace (Illustrator)

#4 in the Earth/Ocean Adventure Series. The Adventure Continues . . . Plunge into the exciting world of sea turtles! Join Pancake, a loggerhead sea turtle on an amazing adventure. One day, Pancake is injured by a boat. The sea turtle is rescued and taken to a very special place - a hospital just for sea turtles!
Working at the hospital is a young girl named Lolly. Lolly helps take care of the injured turtle. The girl and the sea turtle form a special bond. With Lolly's help, Pancake gets better. In time, the loggerhead turtle is released back to the sea. Lolly never forgets Pancake.
Miraculously, Pancake and Lolly meet again! Pancake has come back to the beach to nest. Once more, Lolly is there to help. But this time it's not Pancake that needs help - it's her babies! Find out how Lolly helps save the sea turtles!

24 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this at a local bookshop. I would have been all over this as a kid. Turtles were one of my fav animals as a kid, and I like that this is a rehab book, because I volunteered at a wildlife rehab center one year.

I know this is a kid’s book, but the way it's written is very childish.
‘Doctors operated to fix her shell or carapace.’ It should be more obvious that carapace means shell.
'“What is wrong with the turtle?” asked the nice lady that ran the hospital.' This is an example of how childish this is.

‘Lolly always worked hard even though she didn’t get paid. Lolly was a volunteer. She and other volunteers helped the hospital to run smoothly.’ She’s a volunteer, although on the previous page it said her official title was junior biologist.

Here we go with things being unrealistic for kids. I’m sure humans touching him would make him more scared. ‘Lolly helped calm the frightened turtle…Gently, she patted the sea turtle’s back.
“There, there…Pancake…,” Lolly talked softly, “what a good turtle you are!” Pancake seemed to relax under the girl’s tender touch.’

That female doctor with short blond hair looks like Ellen Degeneres!! Omg hahah!

I liked the tidbit about turtles thinking plastic bags or balloons are jellyfish and eat them by accident. I didn’t know that happened.
Volunteers could go on turtle patrol, looking for tracks and other signs that turtles were nesting.

Also other good tidbits of info, how turtles come back to the place where they were born to lay their eggs. They find a place the tide can’t reach.
They dig a “body pit” and drop their eggs into the hole or ‘egg cavity.’ I’m surprised they’re soft-shelled, like rubbery ping-pong balls.
They bury the eggs to protect them and keep them moist, and also keeps the eggs at the right temperature.

It’s sad that the mom turtles don’t return to the nest, and the babies are left to hatch and make their way to the sea on their own.
Turtle tracks resemble tractor tire tracks, which is an interesting fact.
I though it was sweet how Lolly made a promise to Pancake, that she’d protect her nest.

It said the hatchlings would use their egg tooth to break open the shells. If you didn’t already know what that was, that would be confusing. She should have explained what an egg tooth was.
It mentions some of their predators, like ghost crabs and raccoons.
The hatchlings would swim until they reached a place where they would be safer and could find food. I hadn’t heard that before.

The end frankly got depressing. Most of the turtles wouldn’t make it to adulthood. It’s dangerous for sea turtles out there. The females that made it would lay their eggs on the same beach, and Lolly knew when that happened, her and her children would be there to help out.

Wow, I can’t believe there’s a real Lolly. ‘Lolly has a way with turtles. She helps calm the turtles when they have to have their bandages changed, medical check-ups, or other things done. Lolly says that the sea turtles know her and they respond to her.’
-I like at the end it has things you can do to help sea turtles, like recycling plastic, not littering, picking up others’ litters, not releasing helium balloons. Very informative, and would help whoever reads this feel like they can get involved to help protect sea turtles, and can be proactive.
I think books like this are a great idea to get kids inspired to help wildlife, and can spark a passion in someone to want to work with wildlife.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I made sure not to read the summary on the back. I joked that it was longer than the book because it took up almost the whole back cover. Just from looking at it for a second I could see that it gave away too much and I didn't want it to spoil the story.

I liked the inside cover because it was so informative and inspirational. Telling us about the kid who volunteered at a sea turtle hospital and about how any age can make a difference in the world. The author also told a little about sea turtles and their habits and the threats facing them.

I liked that the story told why loggerhead turtles are called that, because of their large heads. And there was so much information to be had, that boats are a danger to them and that when they're hurt it makes them weak and have trouble swimming. I didn't know the tide could bring them back to shore if they can't swim against it. 

It was so childish to day the nice lady answered the phone. Like everyone that works with turtles are nice...It was a bad decision to say the doctors operated on her carapace. That was way too large of a word for kids. I don't even know what it is! And then to not tell us what it was just made it worse.

I liked that she let readers know how they go about fixing turtle shells. They have to use screws and pins and metal plates. It's so cool you can volunteer at turtle hospitals and be a junior biologist. 
I thought it was so farfetched that Pancake was scared at the hospital and Lolly patted its back and she relaxed. I'm not sure that a turtle would calm down from being talked to and touched by a human, two things it isn't used to. When I volunteered at a wildlife rehab center the #1 rule was to keep the wild in wildlife and not talk to them or be around them any longer than necessary so they wouldn't get used to humans. Which is vital to their survival!

I noticed that there wasn't much flow and things could have been worded better so the story could be told at its best. Just clumsy to say "Then the day came when another doctor, Dr. Andy, came to see if Pancake was well enough to be released." It brought to question why another doctor was there and why that had to even be brought up. It was so random and wasn't explained, so it probably shouldn't have been in there. It was just distracting.

What a nice bit of information that the reason turtles eat plastic bags and balloons is because they look like jellyfish. And that they come back to the beach where they born, which I already knew.
I thought the picture of the sea turtle laying an egg was quite graphic, what with the body part that they lay the eggs with fully extended like that. It just stood out to me and was a little too much.
She related the danger baby sea turtles face, that when they hatch and make their way to the sea they're prey to crabs and raccoons and other things.

The end had a picture of the real Lolly. How cool to have a book written about you. It started out good but then just irritated me. She said Lolly has a way with turtles and helps calm them down. "Lolly says that the sea turtles know her and they respond to her." Is that what Lolly says? Well we all know kids know what they're talking about...Yeah. Right. As an adult it's your job to set things straight, not indulge such a childish idea that's actually just harmful. How ludicrous that a person is known throughout the sea by all turtles-no matter the species, and if they've even seen her before? Are all the turtles repeat customers or are you telling me new turtles who have never encountered her before know her??? Anyone with an iota of knowledge on wild animals knows that human contact with WILD animals is dangerous. They are called wild for a reason and they need to stay that way. Yet this book seems to be saying you can touch wild animals and talk to them all you want. That is a dangerous lesson. And you don't have to perpetuate this childish belief that animals "know" and "like" certain people...

At least she got down to actual business and told ways to help sea turtles. You can write letters to the government for laws that protect sea turtles and endangered animals, raise money and donate to sea turtle groups, and pick up trash at the beach. What as really interesting was the bit on not sending up helium balloons because they might end up in the ocean. What an eye-opener.

This was okay but what really ruined it was how childish it was. Unnecessary details were included; when she mentioned two names for a certain thing, like shell and carapace, and hole and egg cavity, she didn't specify both words could be used for the same thing. It was confusing. The thing that bothered me the most was saying the girl calmed turtles down by touching them and talking to them...you don't have to repeat that. That's not what she's doing. And that the turtles know her...what a joke. She went too far into detail for some things, using big words and it was just wasn't written well.