Alone at Sea
‘Turtle Island’ and ‘Galápagos George’
In
two new picture books, stories of giant turtles and tortoises take
different tacks, one casting facts aside to revel in the imaginative
possibilities of such a creature’s life, the other taking a long view of
its evolution over the course of a million years. One starts in
isolation and ends companionably; the other begins in a community, and
ends alone. They’re books for different age groups to be sure, but
neither entirely succeeds as a picture book.
In
Kevin Sherry’s “Turtle Island,” a tale of generosity and also of
loneliness, a giant turtle, “as BIG as an island,” swimming in an even
bigger sea, yearns for friendship. When the turtle rescues a cat, an
owl, a bear and a frog from shipwreck, it seems that his isolation has
ended. In a sort of floating commune, they each contribute a skill (one
knits, one builds, and so forth) to make life more enjoyable. Turtle’s
only skill is hospitality, and he is delighted to give the sailors a
home on his back. Eventually though, the castaways miss their families,
and soon the turtle is alone once more. His bravery in the face of this
change is impressive and ultimately rewarded when his friends return to
establish a more populous colony.
Sherry
(“I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean”) uses simple black-outlined
shapes and appropriately wet-looking washes of transparent paint to
illustrate his story, which is flawed only in that it doesn’t seem to
have an obvious human analogy. (Perhaps the turtle is like a hotelier
who’s sad when the high season is over?) Children who like to think
things through may be frustrated to realize that none of the story quite
makes sense. Where did the wool for knitting Turtle an enormous scarf
come from? How would animals actually survive living on his back? Where
would they find water? For those readers prepared to suspend their
disbelief and just enjoy the cheerful pictures, Sherry offers a
well-intentioned vision of an improvised, cooperative family.
Sadly,
Jean Craighead George, who wrote “Galápagos George,” about the last of
the Pinta Island saddleback tortoises, died within weeks of the tortoise
whose name she shared. The writer seems to have found the theme of
surviving alone a resonant one; it was also the topic of her best-known
book, the 1973 Newbery Medal winner, “Julie of the Wolves,” in which an
Eskimo girl survives in the Alaska wilderness without human companions.
In
“Galápagos George,” the author (aided by the illustrator Wendell Minor,
with whom she worked for more than 20 years) begins her history a
million years ago, when a giant tortoise living in South America is
swept into the sea and carried all the way to the Galápagos. The
tortoise lives to be 200, and her long neck, which she passes down to
her offspring, allows her to eat leaves from trees as well as ground
plants. Eventually, “after many thousands of years all the tortoises on
her island had long, graceful necks and shells that fanned back like
handsome collars.”
The
tortoises’ adaptation to their environment is successful, but cannot
protect them from destruction by sailors and the rats and pigs they
bring ashore from their ships. On Pinta Island the giant tortoises
eventually die out, leaving only Lonesome George, who never finds a
mate.
It’s
a poignant story, with only a brief appearance by Charles Darwin, whose
theory of natural selection informs the book. In conclusion, George
writes optimistically that because of Galápagos George and his kin, we
know that “as long as there is life, there will always be ‘new and
unimaginable things that can happen.’ ” It’s a slightly odd lesson to
draw from a story that at its core is a tragic one. How can there be
further adaptation after the last representative has died because of
human aggression and carelessness?
“Galápagos
George” seems weighty for its picture-book format, but too vague for an
older reader. George never mentions certain basic facts, like the size
or weight of these giant tortoises; Darwin is described only as “the
great naturalist” as if George assumes children reading the book will be
aware of his work. Perhaps to make up for this imbalance, information
on “key terms,” a timeline, and a list of print and online resources are
included. It would take a very particular child to read and engage with
this book on his or her own, though one can imagine using it in a
classroom as part of a more detailed study of natural selection. Adults
reading the book will note that its elegiac tone is apt for this last
work by a great writer. Let’s hope she is not the last of her kind.
TURTLE ISLAND
Written and illustrated by Kevin Sherry
44 pp. Dial. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 7)
GALÁPAGOS GEORGE
By Jean Craighead George
Illustrated by Wendell Minor
36 pp. Harper/HarperCollins. $15.99. (Picture book; ages 5 to 10)