Turtle Love

I love turtles and tortoises. We grew up with plenty of California desert tortoises in our backyard. That's me on the left feeding Mongo a humongous piece of juicy lettuce.
While it is still winter and all the tortoises are in hibernation, dreaming of spring blooms, I am settling down with a nice cup of ginger tea and reading Emma's Turtle to my toddler. She especially loves the imagery.


Illustrator Marsha Winborn is a graduate of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California and now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is the illustrator of more than 35 books and she really knows how to bring a smile to a child's face. My little C loves her silly bugs and orange striped cat the best and I think the turtle and garden gnome are the sweetest.

Eve Bunting is the author and she is also a Caldecott Medal winner for her book, Smoky Night. She lives in Pasadena, California.
Emma's turtle lives in a backyard pen. He loves to listen to Emma's stories about far away lands and one day decides to see the world beyond his pen. He adventures only a few yards from his home and imagines he is in Australia, India and China. Turtles walk very slow and he is happy when he finds Emma who puts him back in his pen and feeds him strawberry slices. mmmm It's almost strawberry season!
Okay, here's one more picture of Mongo and I. I asked my mom if she could dig up a picture of me with a turtle and she sent 5! (It was a tough decision.) Mongo is still around and roaming freely in our parents' backyard. I wonder how old she is now........