The Turtle and the Moon

by Charles Turner, Melissa Bay Mathis (Illustrator)

A lonely turtle makes friends with the moon.

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Paperback

First published May 2, 1991

About the author

There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Mississippian by birth, Charles Turner's short stories include “Shadow of Turning” (The Southern Review), “The Art Student” (Image), and “Ends of the Earth” (Image). Many of Turner’s stories take place in his American South, but the region that intrigues him the most is the frontier between physical and spiritual realities. Turner’s 1982 novel The Celebrant (an Episcopal Book Club selection) was based on a true story of a young priest who followed Christ into the hell that was Memphis in the plague year of 1878. Turner’s next novel, Sometimes it Causes Me to Tremble, tells the story of a pastor who finds himself fleshing out the gospel in ways he never dreamed. [https://www.imagejournal.org/artist/c...]

Reviews

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Turtle and the Moon was a beautifully illustrated picture book. It told the tale of a little turtle, who grew lonely in his everyday activities. He did not have a friend to keep him company and entertain him. This was the case until one night he awoke to find his new playmate. They did tricks in the water together, until the morning came. Every night the turtle would stay up for his friend to awaken and play. This book is about finding friends in the most peculiar places.

The art work, illustrated by Melissa Bay Mathis, was done beautifully in a colorful display in pastels. The pictures were wonderfully detailed with a lighter green color scheme for the day-time events and had a darker blue scheme for the night. All the pages had full pictures, with little white colored text pockets, which contrasted the rich tones in the pictures. Most of the pastel work encompassed both pages of the book, except one set of pages, which had four smaller pictures to represent a time lapse of the turtle’s daily activities. Overall, this book had colorful pastel work with a story to match.

[Carrie Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet book. I liked the illustrations and the unlikely pairing of friends.

[Mariah Hanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lonely turtle makes friends with the moon’s reflection on the pond. A sweet, calming story about friendship (although still a little sad to me). Good for turtle/reptile programs.