Turtle in Paradise

Bibliography

Holm, Jennifer L. 2010. Turtle in Paradise. New York: Random House. ISBN 9780375836909

Plot Summary

During the Great Depression, 11-year-old Turtle is sent to live with her aunt and cousins in Key West, Florida. When she arrives, she meets them for the first time. She immediately begins to spend all of her time with her cousins and the neighborhood boys. The boys run the “Diaper Gang,” a rough and tumble group who cares for the island babies. They initially do not let her join this “gang,” but she prides herself on being clever enough to be accepted. Although the island provides buffering from the Great Depression, Turtle knows that elsewhere people don’t have enough to eat or a roof over their heads. Once she adjusts to the heat and culture, she finds herself with plenty to eat, family all around, and an island to explore. There’s possibly buried pirate treasure to find! 

Critical Analysis

Holm captures the tropical island feel of constant heat, humidity, and omnipresent tropical insects and animals. She uses wonderful imagery with examples like shaking out shoes to check for scorpions, although few people wear shoes. She also uses local terms, such as alligator pear for avocado and leche for Cuban coffee. Holm also blends in the popular culture of the time by referencing Hollywood films and newspaper comics. 

Holm uses extensive figurative language early in the book, but this dwindles after the first few chapters. For example, she began using terms like only “a heartbeat later” but reverted to very few phrases with any local flavor. She did maintain nicknames for all the island characters because that was the common practice on their key.  

Turtle comes from a home with a caring, working, mother and no strong father figure. She channels her mother’s love of Hollywood by reflecting on different situation through Little Orphan Annie. On the island, she meets new kids and tries to fit in, but retains her strong character. The kids in this story are typical boys looking for trouble, but with a softer side of caring for the island babies as the “diaper gang.” One of the locals reminds her of her namesake - that they have a hard shell but soft underside.

This book felt more like a fictional book than an historical fiction creation. Many of the details that the author gives were not unique to this story and could be found in any story about the Keys or island living. This gave a generic feeling to the story. Holm does include an author’s note with photos, a short bibliography, and web sites about the Keys, but they are not specific to the story. For example, two of the resources are about the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935; however the only reference to this hurricane in the story is a passing note that it happened and killed a lot of people. This could be true of any hurricane in the early part of the century. Turtle in Paradise is a nice escape into the Florida Keys, but could have included more than vague details about that time period to better qualify as historical fiction. 

Review Excerpts

This book is a:

  -  New York Times bestselling book

  -  Newbery Honor book 

School Library Journal

“In 1935, jobs are hard to come by, and Turtle's mother is lucky to find work as a live-in housekeeper. When she learns that her employer can't stand children, she sends her 11-year-old daughter from New Jersey to Key West to live with relatives. Turtle discovers a startlingly different way of life amid boisterous cousins, Nana Philly, and buried treasure. This richly detailed novel was inspired by Holm's great-grandmother's stories. Readers who enjoy melodic, humorous tales of the past won't want to miss it.”

Booklist

“Eleven-year-old Turtle is not one to suffer fools gladly. And she runs into a lot of fools, especially the no-goods her starry-eyed mother meets. So it's a tough little Turtle who arrives in Key West in June of 1935…As Turtle soon learns, everything is different in Key West, from the fruit hanging on trees to the scorpions in nightgowns to the ways kids earn money. She can't be part of her cousins' Diaper Gang (no girls allowed), which takes care of fussy babies, but when she finds a treasure map, she hopes she'll be on Easy Street like Little Orphan Annie. Holm uses family stories as the basis for this tale, part romp, part steely-eyed look at the Depression era…the plot is a hilarious blend of family dramas seasoned with a dollop of adventure. The many references to 1930s entertainments (Terry and the Pirates, Shirley Temple) will mostly go over kids' heads, but they'll get how much comics and movies meant to a population desperate for smiles.”

Connections 

-  Some chapters of this book would be easily adapted into a readers theatre.

The Dragon's Child: A Story of Angel Island

Bibliography

Yep, Laurence, and Kathleen S. Yep. 2008. The Dragon's Child: A Story of Angel Island. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 9780062018151

Plot Summary

This story gives face to the trials of the Chinese-Americans who left their country and tried to return to the United States. The Dragon's Child is built around conversations with author Laurence Yep’s father, Gim Lew Yep, who left China as a boy to accompany his father to the United States. These descriptions include extensive historical records, including interviews, from the immigration department at Angel Island about his family. Set in the early 1920s, when immigration into the United States by the Chinese and Chinese-Americans was difficult, Gim Lew Yep’s father takes ten-year old Gim back to the United States with him. This is a father son journey. They bond while conducting the lengthy preparation for the immigration interview. The interview process at Angel Island is brutal and Gim has the expectations, and future, of the whole family on his shoulders. He must get into America, but is torn and deeply saddened to be leaving his home, family, and culture, where “family is everything.”

Critical Analysis 

Yep opens each chapter with a few lines from interviews he conducted with his father. These accounts anchor the story in this historical and political reality of 1920s China after the revolution. These details are joined with the anti-immigrant sentiments in America. Each chapter also opens with parallel dates: the American date and day in the Chinese calendar. This sets the stage for the duality of the story. The child and the father are the yin and yang of love for their respective countries, China and America. The father can’t wait to leave the poor rural life and return to the hustle and bustle of the rich city; the child doesn’t want to leave the only thing he has known to go to the “Golden Mountain.” 

Yep does a good job of vividly describing the surroundings as the plot moves from the country, to the Chinese port city, onto the boat, then into the detention center that is Angel Island. The people and surroundings, such as poetry carved into the wall in Chinese, tell the tale of an immigrant’s journey to America and captures the flavor of the time. The fear and anxiety of the immigrants moving through Angel Island are tangible. 

The Dragon's Child is also a coming of age story as Gim transitions from child with few responsibilities to an income earner the family relies upon. He mentally has to adjust to a new life, new clothes, new food, and a new climate. Along the path, Gim symbolically transitions his clothing from robes to a western suit.

Yep clearly researched his topic. He wrote an Author’s Note at the beginning describing his family history and the role of his father, Gim Lew Yep. At the back of the book he features a “More About Chinese American Immigration” section, photos, a bibliography, and web resources for Angel Island. He also included the work of his niece, Dr. Kathleen S. Yep. 

I have worked extensively with the Bob Bullock Museum when they were creating the exhibit on the immigration station in Galveston, Texas. This feelings expressed in this story of a Chinese-American immigrant coming through Angel Island are very similar to the fears and feelings of powerlessness of the German immigrants coming through Galveston Island.  

Review Excerpts

This author is a:

  -  Two-time Newbury Honor author

  

School Library Journal

“Yep raises many issues about both Chinese immigration and the immigrant experience in general: Who am I? Where do I belong? How can I balance the duality of my life? Why do people treat others this way? The photograph of Gim Lew in his Western clothes shows a very real sadness and anxiety that are common to anyone leaving family and country behind as they journey to a new life, and Yep captures this beautifully in this brief fictionalized account.“

Booklist

“Each chapter begins with a simple question to his dad: Were you sad when you left your village? Were you nervous about America? The answers personalize the young immigrant’s heart-wrenching leaving, the journey over, the racism, and climax of the rigorous interview at Angel Island, where Yep’s father faces the threat of being refused entry to America. Tension builds and secrets are revealed as his father practices for the Test, tries not to act nervous, and hides his left-handedness and his stammer. With family photos, a historical note, and a long bibliography, this stirring narrative will spark readers’ own search for roots.”

Connections

-  This book would be a good starting point for children to research their family history.

-  After reading this book, students in Texas can compare Angel Island to Galveston Island using their   

   websites as a starting point:

               Angel Island: www.aiisf.org

               Galveston Island: Forgotten Gateway

-  Readers can explore immigration practices today and then hear a first person account from a guest 

   speaker who is a recent immigrant. 

-  After reading this book, the reader can find images of artifacts from the large immigration stations 

   such as Angel Island (West), Galveston Island (South), and Ellis Island (East).

One Crazy Summer

Bibliography

Williams-Garcia, Rita. 2010. One Crazy Summer. New York: Amistad. ISBN 9780060760908

Plot Summary 

One Crazy Summer is set in Oakland, California during the tension-filled, late 1960’s. Three black sisters, ages 11, 9, and 7, fly from New York to California to meet the mother who left them. They are met with her apathy. Each day, she sends them to the Community Center to learn lessons taught by Black Panther members. They are taught to own their “blackness” and “inner power.” At first they resist, saying “We didn’t come for the revolution. We came for breakfast.” Plus, the eldest sees it as a dangerous road that could get her sisters into trouble, which always weighs heavily on her mind. They learn that their mother is a poet who prints posters for the Black Panthers. Eventually, they feel the “power to the people” and embrace their role. This acceptance helps bring them closer together with their estranged mother and find some resolution. 

Critical Analysis 

Williams-Garcia has created some vivacious characters who are believable and relatable. Common themes are sibling rivalry and protectiveness as Williams-Garcia weaves a story about a broken home, the lack of a mother figure and fitting in. In this book, “fitting in” and “blackness” are interconnected as the girls struggle to understand their cultural heritage. They experience tension amongst themselves and against the other kids who attend class with them.

The history is presented accurately. It opens with a strong sense of “us versus them,” as racial tensions rise in Oakland. It’s appropriate to the targeted age, with Williams-Garcia masterfully portraying a sense of constant police presence and monitoring by “the man,” without becoming overbearing or losing hope. Several times adults are arrested, and the children discuss the political situation. 

The setting is critical to the story, since descriptions of the hair styles, music and historical events move the plot forward. References to the the assassinations of John F. Kennedy (1963) and Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968), plus the rise of the Black Panthers (1966), underscore why the characters are experiencing cultural dissonance with the world around them. Since the Black Panther movement is central to the story of the girls, their mother, and the community center, more detail is given about the Black Panther movement, such as “little Bobby” being killed and the head of the Black Panthers being imprisoned. The colloquialisms and speech patterns which flavored the times, like peace,  soul sista’s and referring to police as pigs, further adds to the element of setting.

This book intrigued me because it speaks to the adage “there are two sides to every story.” One Crazy Summer shows the day-to-day functioning of the early Black Panthers, i.e., the side that fed the community and gave children a place to spend their summer. Often history books only portray the Black Panthers as the radical group they became, and not the community organization where they began. 

The author does not cite direct sources, but does cite her personal experience and reading literature from that time period. To improve the credibility of the information, citations need to be added to future printings.

Review Excerpts

This book is a:

  -  Newbery Honor Book

  -  Coretta Scott King Award

  -  Scott o’Dell Award

  -  National Book Award Finalist

School Library Journal

“Emotionally challenging and beautifully written, this book immerses readers in a time and place and raises difficult questions of cultural and ethnic identity and personal responsibility. With memorable characters (all three girls have engaging, strong voices) and a powerful story, this is a book well worth reading and rereading.”

Booklist

“Regimented, responsible, strong-willed Delphine narrates in an unforgettable voice, but each of the sisters emerges as a distinct, memorable character, whose hard-won, tenuous connections with their mother build to an aching, triumphant conclusion. Set during a pivotal moment in African American history, this vibrant novel shows the subtle ways that political movements affect personal lives; but just as memorable is the finely drawn, universal story of children reclaiming a reluctant parent’s love.”

Connections 

-  This is a ideal book to discuss the race riots of the 1960’s and 70‘s and the Black Panthers. For 
   example, were the Black Panthers a “radical group of zealots” or providing a community service?

-  Paired with current-event newspaper clippings about race in America, this book would serve as a 
   benchmark to compare past to present.  Kids will naturally want to discuss the past in order to think 
   about the present. 

-  This book could also be paired with a video about the political movements in Oakland, California, in 
   the 1960’s to explore the realities of racial tension at that time.