How the Turtle Got Its Shell

by Justine Korman Fontes, Ron Fontes, Keiko Motoyama (Illustrator)

Delightful retellings of turtle tales from around the world, plus fun facts about turtles, are sure to please all turtle fans.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fables

24 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2000

About the author

Justine Korman is the author of over 600 children's books, including mega-selling adaptations of Disney hits like THE LION KING, plus her original popular GRUMPY BUNNY series for Scholastic.

Justine has been writing all her life. She worked part-time in publishing while earning her B.A. in English Literature, Phi Beta Kappa from New York University. While an editorial assistant at Golden Books, she met her future husband and partner, Ron Fontes, an artist in the Whitman Comics department, who moved on to mighty Marvel Comics.

When Justine started getting freelance writing assignments, Ron pitched in and a children's book writing team was born! Ron brought visual storytelling, theatre, and history; Justine enthusiasm, humor, and a straight-A attitude.

In 1988, the couple moved to Maine, where they have written everything from beginning readers and novelty books to historical fiction and graphic novels.
Justine's hobbies include fitness, juggling, gardening, cooking, and playing the ukulele. She also enjoys making movies with Ron.

The prolific couple's goal is to write 1001 children's books.

Reviews

[booklady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having been slow all my life, I identify with turtles. (Note: Not AS a turtle, but with turtles.) I happened to mention this once to my dear departed Mother-in-law who took this as license to buy me turtles wherever she went, resulting in a sizable collection of the hard-shelled crawlers: earrings, salt and pepper shakers, Christmas tree ornament, to name but a few. She was an inveterate shopper, especially when she knew you liked something.

This book, however, I bought for myself, though I will gladly share it with my grandchildren if they would like me to read it to them. It includes a few of the many fables—Algonquian, Greek and creation—told about how turtles got their shells, as well as a few facts about these marvelous creatures.

[DivaDiane SM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite one in the Sleepytime Tales Golden Book Collection. My son was also rarely inspired to ask to have it read to him. The turtle stories are interesting, for purely anthropological reasons, but not very well told in my opinion.

I read this one to my son again for the first time in months. But otherwise, I've read it several times previously.

[Maxwell Rae · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know too much about turtles from around the world now, boring! And not even cool stuff, just boring legends and histories. Where’s the adventure?

[Jane Maple · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sky god requests that someone take the drum from the leopard and give it to the sky god. The animals are wary of trying, but the elephant goes first and it is defeated. The ostrich goes next, but also defeated. The turtle goes and tricks the leopard saying his drum doesn't look that big, why the leopard himself couldn't even fit inside. So of course the leopard has to prove that is not the case and gets stuck inside. The story is an Ashanti tale and uses Ashanti and Swahili words for the animal's names.

[Kylie Abecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite well done with numerous short tales that have the feel of fireside yarns.

[Leah G · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am not impressed by this book. It’s not something I imagine my 4 year old will be asking me to read again. I collect Little Golden books and this one is a disappointment.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 2 out of 5]

My 2 year old and I read this in Little Golden Book Collection: Sleepytime Tales. It felt kind of disjointed to me, and she was really only interested in naming things in the pictures.

[Cruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Authors: Justine and Ron Fontes
Illustrator: Keiko Motoyama
First Published: 2011




A mixture of mythology and fact in a Little Golden Book, the Fontes' and Motoyama give a simple, colourful book about turtles. Interesting and a nice educational supplement but nothing extraordinary.

Age:
Read aloud - 4+
Read yourself - 7+

References:
How the Turtle Really got it's shell: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-envir...

(ISBN 9780307960078)

-CR-

[Bree · Rating 4 out of 5]

I totally loved this book. It's all about how a turtle got its shell. It takes lots of cultures stories and made them come to life with colorful pictures. I thought it was interesting and really enjoyable to read. It lets you exercise your imagination. Something I don't think we do enough as adults. As you get older it's all facts and black and white, but as a kid there's still that magic. It's really something beautiful. Great book definitely add it to your children's bookshelf.

[Susanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute turtle book - love all the different stories about the turtle shell. The soup bowl is my fav...

[Yixuan Wang · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for any child, and beautiful artwork too. The drawing is cute. It talks about the origins of the legends of several tortoiseshell.