Turtle in July

by Marilyn Singer, Jerry Pinkney

An illustrated collection about the activities of particular animals in each month of the year

Genres: Poetry, Picture Books, Animals, Nonfiction, Nature

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Marilyn Singer was born in the Bronx (New York City) on October 3, 1948 and lived most of her early life in N. Massapequa (Long Island), NY. She attended Queens College, City University of New York, and for her junior year, Reading University, England. She holds a B.A. in English from Queens and an M.A. in Communications from New York University.

In 1974, after teaching English in New York City high schools for several years, she began to write - initially film notes, catalogues, teacher's guides and film strips. Then, one day, when she was sitting in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, she penned a story featuring talking insect characters she'd made up when she was eight. Encouraged by the responses she got, she wrote more stories and in 1976 her first book, The Dog Who Insisted He Wasn't, was published by E.P.Dutton & Co.

Since then, Marilyn has published over seventy books for children and young adults. Her genres are many and varied, including realistic novels, fantasies, non-fiction, fairy tales, picture books, mysteries and poetry. She likes writing many different kinds of books because it's challenging and it keeps her from getting bored. She has won several Children's Choice and Parents' Choice Awards, as well as the following: the Creature Carnival, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor Book, 2005; I Believe in Water: Twelve Brushes with Religion, New York Public Library's "Best Books for the Teen Age," 2001; Stay True: Short Stories for Strong Girls, Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 2000 (YALSA); On the Same Day in March, Booklist's Top Ten Science Books of 2000; NCSS-CBC Notable Book, 2000; Deal with a Ghost, finalist, YA category, Edgar Award, 1998; It Can't Hurt Forever, Maud Hart Lovelace Award, 1983; The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth, ALA Best Book for Young Adults, 1983; Turtle in July, NCTE Notable, N.Y.Times Best Illustrated and Time Magazine Best Children's Books of 1989; Turtle in July was also a Reading Rainbow review book.

Marilyn currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband Steve; their standard poodle Oggi, a cousin of their beloved and recently departed poodle Easy, seen in the home page photo; a cat named August ; two collared doves named Jubilee and Holiday; and a starling named Darling. Her interests include dog training, reading, hiking, bird-watching, gardening, meditation, playing computer adventure games and going to the movies and the theatre. She's also a major Star Trek fan.

Reviews

[Cassandra Gelvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enough bullheads.

It's a list of poems from the point of view of various animals as the year progresses. Every season has a poem from the bullhead fish, because they are the most important fish. At a certain point, it's just like, "Okay, enough. Enough poems. Oh my god, enough." And they get really repetitive. It's interesting, and they're definitely different styles based on the different animals, but poems like the one from the deer mouse are really annoying. "Get get get get get get out of the nest get into the cold get get get get get food lots of food." It's like, okay, I get it. That's kind of how you would expect a mouse to talk. And the bear talks like, "Who I? Where I?" So mice are hyperactive, bears are stupid, warblers are extremely repetitive, rattlesnakes talk like Yoda, and the bullheads... enough with the bullheads. Every season, it's like, "Oh god, they're back." Here's the bullheads in spring. Here's the bullheads in summer. Here they are in autumn. Enough. Enough stupid fish. I don't care about the stupid fish. I just got really sick of this book. By the third poem, I was just done.

They're well-written, they're just so wordy and written in a way that my brain does not want to think. The illustrations are kind of cool. But I can't imagine children thinking that this was terribly interesting, either. I was bored. It was very evocative of the different animals, but it just went on too long. This book should have been much shorter, and it really was fairly short to begin with.

Message: The activities of animals change over the seasons.

For more children's book reviews, see my website at http://www.drttmk.com.

[Two Hearts Homeschool · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars from me as this kind of “poetry” is not my thing. BUT my 5 year old enjoyed it and was tickled
pink by the dragonfly poem that was shaped like a zigzag on the page - he pointed that put right away. A lot of repetition of words which made me think this might actually be a good book for early reading lessons.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book because I loved the art when I glanced through it and love the idea of animal poems to go with the pictures. Unfortunately, I don't like the poetry style very much and parts were confusing to me. I was surprised when bullhead poems kept coming up and that's when I realized there is a bullhead poem for each season. This seems an odd choice and I was especially uninterested in those ones. I do think it's fun though to have some different poetry in my home that mimics what different animals sound like for each month. It's not the writing I was hoping for but it's still fun and I do love the art! We may not read it a lot but I still hope to read it a few times (though we may skip a few of the bullhead ones).

[Gina · Rating 2 out of 5]

The pictures are really good, but the poems -- which try to convey the voices of different animals at different times of year -- are not so good.

Turtle only comes up in July, but they keep going back to bullheads.

It is interesting that Timber rattlesnake kind of talks like Yoda.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This marvelous book is a collection of animal poems, one for each month in the year. It features bullheads sleeping under ice, deer, and more, ending with a house cat in December.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recently received as a gift for a poem I wrote, I already love this anthology by Marilyn Singer and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. It is full of delightful and jumpy descriptions of different creatures throughout the seasons. For example, there's 'January Deer', 'March Bear,, and "april is a dog's dream,' where is found a dog who says "we're going to the park/to chase and charge and chew'. The illustrations are gorgeous watercolors surrounding the words. I hope you can find a copy.

[The Styling Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, this was a fantastic poetry book to enjoy with my son. The poems were dying to be read aloud and after I read them, my son would say, MY TURN and read it with even more enthusiasm. I additionally think the illustrations were beautiful, so lifelike. Fabulous poetry book to share with kids. K-5 (and I loved it as an adult as well!)

[Ileana Lindner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author: Marilyn Singer
Title: Turtle in July
Grade: 2-3

This book is an interesting story book that goes into what different animals are doing in different parts of the year. It explains animal diversity and the structure and function of living organisms all organized into a nice story for young 2nd and 3rd graders to enjoy.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book includes a poem about an animal for every month of the year, and sometimes season. ONe of my favorite was Deer Mouse which uses repition of the word "get" and tells all the things a mouse needs to get without getting into trouble.

[Candace Carr]

This book would be great to read to a 3rd grade classroom about the seasons. This book could also be read during s unit on animals because students can learn about different animals during certain times of the year.

[Sydney McClure · Rating 3 out of 5]

The style of poetry shown in this book gives new insight to how to write poetry. It doesn't rhyme, but it uses the way sentences are broken up to be poetic. Perfect for a poetry theme. Also, the poems are about animals doing various activities from January to December, and its very realistic.

[Andrea Cain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nature themed poem. I chose this book because my daughter loves turtles. I love the way the book splits and tells the winter and spring story’s of the animals lives. It tells how they hibernate in the winter or scavenge for foodacross the snow. How the spring brings baby’s.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

My kids love this book. Its a pretty fun poetry book, all about animals, and also has seasons & months. Its a fun book to get at the library.

[Tessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

In animal voices but no supplemental text in the back.

Bear, deer mouse, dragonfly,

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful poems accompanied by beautiful illustrations of each month of the year.