Summary
Eleven-year old Turtle is sent to live with her relatives in Key West, Florida when her mother gets a job working as a housekeeper for a lady that does not like children during the Great Depression.
Critical Analysis
Turtle in Paradise is a historical fiction novel set in 1935, during the Great Depression. This novel depicts the struggles people faced with lack of money and jobs during this time. Holm’s lends authenticity to the story by including an Author’s Note at the end of the novel. In the Author’s Note she writes how she was inspired by her own grandmother who lived in Key West. She also includes more information about Key West during the Great Depression and pictures from during that time. The climax of the novel revolves around the Labor Day Hurricane, which was a true event. Turtle and some other Key West children get stranded in a shack on an island while they were on a treasure hunt when a hurricane suddenly hits the town. This adds to the realism of the story. One of the nuggets of the story has fictional Turtle interacting with a writer who turns out to be Ernest Hemingway, who actually lived on the island during this time period. The plot of the story takes the reader on a believable journey to depression-era Key West because it depicts life as it really was during this time, complete with the struggles and hardships that people faced.
Turtle is a character that young readers will be able to relate to easily. She has a very realistic view of the world and prides herself as seeing things for what they are. She struggles with finding a place to fit in, especially in the strange environment of Key West. In the end of the novel she discovers what it is like to feel like she truly belongs somewhere. This theme relates to young readers because many of them also struggle with feeling accepted and they all want to feel like they belong.
Through the dialog and descriptions, Holm’s captures the reader’s attention and makes them feel like a part of the story. Through the dialog, the reader gets a feel of how people during this era spoke and interacted with each other. The people of Key West are shown to be very informal, close-knit, and skeptical of new people. The people address each other with nicknames, like “Pork Chop” and “Beans,” which according to the author, this was very common on Key West.
Turtle in Paradise combines all of the literary elements to deliver a story that is realistic and believable.
Review Excerpt and Awards
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. She’s been sent to Florida to stay with relatives because her mother’s latest housekeeping job doesn’t allow children. Unfortunately, Mama has neglected to tell Aunt Minnie she’s coming, and Turtle gets the stink eye from cousins with monikers like Buddy and Beans. 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. Reminiscent of Addie in the movie Paper Moon, Turtle is just the right mixture of knowingness and hope; 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. An author’s note (with photos) shows Holm’s family close-up. Ilene Cooper, Booklist
·
Golden
Kite Award, 2011
·
John
Newbery Medal, 2011 Honor Book
Strengths and Weaknesses
One of the greatest strengths of Turtle in Paradise is the authenticity of the novel. Holm’s depicts the Great Depression and Key West with accuracy and believability. The reader gets a true sense of what it was like during the depression and the struggles that children had to endure. Most history books show the Great Depression from the perspective of the adults, and it is rarely seen how children coped during that time.
One of the weaknesses of the novel is that some of the references will go above the young reader’s heads. For example, when Turtle interacts with a writer in a bar, young readers will not know that Holm’s is referring to Ernest Hemingway, nor will they even know who he is.
Personal Response and Connections
Turtle in Paradise is more than a historical fiction novel about the Great Depression, it is about a young girl that struggles to belong and fit in. She discovers that paradise is not a fancy house with a happy ending, but it is being surrounded by those you love. She learns the hard way that people are not always as they seem, for example, Archie, her mother’s boyfriend, runs away with Turtle’s money she got as the result of a treasure hunt. She has learned the truth the hard way: “not all kids are rotten, and there are grown-ups who are sweet as Necco Wafers.”
This novel would be a great addition to a Social Studies lesson on the Great Depression. This book gives students the viewpoint of what it was like as children to live during this era. Students could then research more about children during the Great Depression.
Horrible
ReplyDeleteHorrible
ReplyDelete