Turtle Moon

This disarmingly sweet-natured story describes the ecological adventures of modern eleven-year-old British girl Silver when she and her parents spend four super-memorable months on an animal sanctuary in Costa Rica. Her father paints but her depressed mother, a vet, cannot get over the disappointment of being unable to conceive a second child and spends most time alone. Being surrounded by turtle eggs on the way to successful hatching hardly helps. But Silver has a great time, teaming up with Rafi, her own age and the son of the sanctuary chief. They appoint themselves as extra to the already existing guards, and Silver witnesses a leatherback turtle lay her eggs – a rare sight.

Rafi, accurately described as a walking turtle encyclopaedia, answers all Silver’s questions about these increasingly endangered animals, therefore allowing readers to learn all about them too.  And there are many questions and answers, with the narrative at times risking getting bogged down in its noble intentions. But an aborted raid by poachers renews a sense of urgency and all ends happily as Silver’s mother declares she now wants to open a centre for wounded wildlife once back home.

The author, in a note to readers, reveals that she too had suffered from an inability to conceive but had found new fulfilment in writing books for children featuring wild animals at particular risk. Her previous titles have been well reviewed while also selling well, and the same thing should surely happen with this story. It may be a little too long with characters more interesting in what they can do for turtles than they are in themselves. But the affection in the writing and the general good spirit evident throughout never wavers, with Levi Penfold’s atmospheric drawings adding to the general sense of wonder offered by the natural world to those who want to discover more about it.