Turtle in Paradise: Welcome to Key West

BOOK NAME: Turtle in Paradise
AUTHOR: Jennifer L. Holm

Welcome to July’s first book club meeting! We’ve started reading
Jennifer L. Holm’s book Turtle in Paradise. (Holm is also the
author of the Babymouse book series.) The book is about a girl
named Turtle growing up during the Great Depression.

You
have your copy and you’ve read the first four chapters? Great! Click
“See More.”

Uh-oh. Don’t have your copy yet? Don’t want
to spoil anything? Don’t read any further!

The book begins with Turtle’s journey to Key West to stay with her mother’s sister. Aunt Minnie is VERY surprised to see Turtle, because she had no idea Turtle was coming! Her mother’s letter arrives after Turtle does. Turtle meets her cousins Beans, Buddy, and Kermit. Beans isn’t thrilled to meet Turtle, and doesn’t seem too keen on sharing his house with a girl, even if she is his cousin.

Turtle says she sees things the way they are, while her mother sees the happy side of everything and sees what she wants to see. Which character is more like you?

Turtle’s first Key West breakfast is “alligator pear on Cuban bread.” Turtle knows alligator pears as avocados. Do you like avocados?

Do you have any cousins? Are you close to them?

Here are some
words you might not have seen before. (All definitions
from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.)

Conch:
Any of various large spiral-shelled marine gastropod mollusk. Here’s a picture of a conch shell. Also: a native or resident of the Florida Keys.

Rheumatic fever: An acute disease that occurs chiefly in children and young adults and is
characterized by fever, by inflammation and pain in and around the
joints, and by inflammatory involvement of the pericardium and heart
valves.

Scorpion:
An arachnid that has an elongated body and a narrow segmented tail bearing a venomous stinger.

We’ll read chapters five through nine for our next meeting. Are you enjoying the book so far? We are!

-DogEared