A Place for Turtles
Turtles have lived on Earth for more than 220 million years, but modern environmental stressors make their existence in several regions of the world a tenuous one. Using examples of specific turtles and the regions where they live, Stewart blends a storybook-style narrative with factual marginalia to present a wide range of ecological challenges in this newest installment in the A Place for . . . series. Interposed with colorful and highly detailed acrylic illustrations, topics such as pollution, invasive species, and ecosystem destruction are all mentioned. Maps cover virtually all parts of the United States and detail the types of turtles indigenous to each region. While the topic of the book is clearly turtles, the narrative raises points of conversation on a host of environmental issues and will get young minds thinking about the interconnectedness of organisms, ecology, and the impact of human actions on the world around them. A classroom-friendly blend of story and fact. Grades 1-4. --Erin Anderson