Nilo and the Tortoise

by Ted Lewin

A boy encounters a sea lion, a vermillion flycatcher, a hawk, finches, and a giant tortoise when he spends a day and night alone on an island in the Galapagos, in an exotic adventure by a Caldecott Honor winner.

Genres: Picture Books

40 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1999

Reviews

[Prabhat sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nilo and the Tortoise by Ted Lewin- Children’s Illustrated Colour Picture Book- The book narrates the story of a child who arrives with his father at Galpagos Islands. Nolo‘s father owns a boat which needs repairs. He leaves his son Nilo on Galpagos Island and moves with his boat to another coast where repair of boat facility is available. While playing on the shore Nilo finds the rope tied to the anchor breaks, sweeping the boat out to sea. Nilo’s father has provided him with a bag of fruits- banana, apple. Nilo explores the island until his father can return to him the following day. Nilo finds an angry bull sea lion chasing him but as he keeps walking towards the volcano Caldera, the sea lion returns back. Nilo finds a Galpagos tortoise moving. Finch Birds have encircled him so that they can eat the insects stuck on his body and are sucking the tortoise’s blood. Nilo t the tortoise on is neck. Nolo shares the tortoise with the fruits he has. During the night, Nilo sleeps near the galpagos tortoise. Here he witnessed Crimean Flycatcher birds. Galpagos islands are situated 600 miles away from Equador, South America in the Pacific Ocean. Coloured illustrations help the reader to relate to the story. I have the Hindi language translation of this book.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is pretty simple: Nilo is a young boy who gets left behind on a small island in the Galapagos Islands when he is playing ashore while his father's boat gets repaired. While Nilo's away from the beach, the rope tied to the anchor breaks, sweeping the boat out to sea. Nilo is remarkably calm about this and explores the island until his father can return to him the following day. In the meantime, he sees an angry bull sea lion, many different birds, the volcano's caldera, and a large tortoise, who lets Nilo sleep next to him.

In all honesty, the watercolor illustrations are so detailed and beautiful, I hardly noticed the words on the page. I was in such awe of the artwork!! I'm so glad we own a copy of this book, so I can sit and stare at the paintings as long as I want (or really, as long as my children will let me).

5+ stars for the artwork. 3.5 for the story (which is sweet but not "amazing"). The average is therefore 4.25...although I am tempted to round up to 5 anyway purely due to how much I love the watercolors.

[Katherine Scholl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book. It is engaging and would be good to use as a read aloud.