I’ve walked Duval Street where crazy old Mr. I’ve been to Sloppy Joe’s, where Slow Poke’s former first mate got bit by a shark - a shark named Margaret. I enjoyed getting to know Turtle and her conch cousins, but the more I read, the more I pictured all the places mentioned in the book that are still there today. Turtle in Paradise was wonderful - as warm as Key West at the end of March.
But meeting Turtle and her family, getting to know life on the island during the depression, and seeing how even Turtles with extremely hard outer shells can eventually show their soft sides once in a while was what won me over in the end.
I’ve been to Key West a couple of times, and I enjoy everything that makes it unique, especially its history, so Turtle in Paradise already had a foot in the door of my good graces when I began reading. She tricks the ice cream man into a free cone (“The nickel was in the bottom of the can, mister.”), befriends Nana Philly (“She’s meaner than a scorpion!” Buddy says.), and finds a map that leads her and the whole gang on an adventure.
Turtle is introduced to the Diaper Gang - that’s Kermit, Beans, and his buddy Pork Chop - and eventually earns her way into the local crowd. As if I don’t have enough already with three kids and a husband who’s never home.” Turtle arrives before the letter announcing her arrival, causing stress for Aunt Minnie and an education for Turtle, thanks to Aunt Minnie’s words about her sister. So Turtle is sent to live in Key West with her Aunt Minerva, her mother’s sister, and her sons Beans, Kermit, and the perpetually pantsless Buddy. Budnick can’t abide by noise - and children are noisy. Main character Turtle had lived with her mother, a housekeeper, until her mother got a job working for Mrs. Turtle in Paradise, a 2011 Newbery Honor book by Jennifer Holm, takes readers to Key West, Florida in 1935.
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