All right. Going to try something new. Please be patient as I try to add a new habit… I would recommend this book for girls in grades 4th through 6th grade. If you have an eager-reader 3rd grader or a reluctant-reader older child, this a safe, non-demanding book. I read it in a day, by which I mean it is not overly complex and yet I still was captivated. It is a work of historical fiction, set during the Great Depression in the Florida Keys. It is also a 2011 Newbery Honor book. This is the author’s 3rd Newbery Honor. Her other recognized works are Penny From Heaven, and Our Only May Amelia.
This is the kind of book that no one will remember a year from now. It stands alone. There will be no sequels. It won’t be turned into a movie – not even a Hallmark made for TV movie. It’s not flashy – it doesn’t scream “READ ME!” No one will imagine that they are Turtle. She is not the kind of heroine girls dream of being.
But the book is quiet, relaxing and even funny. Turtle, named such for her hard exterior, is spending the summer with her aunt and cousins on a small island in the Keys because Turtle’s mother, who works as a live-in housekeeper, is currently employed by a woman who doesn’t like children. Turtle has never been to her mother’s hometown and has never met her relatives. She is a New Jersey girl and a city girl her likes her shoes on her feet.
Turtle’s cousins, Beans, Kermit and Buddy, and their best friend Pork Chop are shoeless islanders. They roam free from sunup to sundown and try to keep out of their mother’s way lest she puts them to work. The boys, yes, all boys, are related to nearly everyone on the island and everyone knows everyone’s business.
The boys’ business? They call themselves the Diaper Gang. Every morning the boys take to the streets with their wagon and some blankets and their very own, secret formula, diaper rash ointment. You read that right. The boys go door to door to pick up bad babies. They tend to the babies while their mothers do their house work. Their theory is that all babies are bad and women don’t know how to handle them, always picking them up and rocking them and never setting them down. Why you gotta let the little buggers scream it out. But really, these boys have it figured out. AND they work for candy.
Now, Turtle’s a girl and she’s not allowed in the gang, but that doesn’t mean she can’t tag along. And Turtle has her own theories. She thinks all kids are bad, not just the babies. For that matter, grownups are a pretty sorry bunch as well. Her mother is a dreamer who keeps getting hurt by the men in her life. Turtle has one dream. She wants her mother to get a good job and settle down so they can buy their own house. She’s hoping that her mother’s new boyfriend will be “the one” and Turtle will be on her way to having a normal family.
While she waits, Turtle's summer is full of adventure. She hunts for pirate treasure. She gets stranded on an island during a hurricane. And she makes connections with relatives she didn’t know she had.
No, this isn’t the next Lightning Thief, and it won’t make my top 100 books, but it was a nice break. When we are looking for the extraordinary in our surroundings, we fail to see the average and every day. Average and every day people are FULL of surprises! And so is this book.
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