Sea Turtles

National Geographic Readers: Level 2

by Laura Marsh

Who could resist celebrating sea turtles? They may seem like lazy ocean reptiles drifting with the oceans’ currents, but they are actually long-distance swimmers that spend their entire lives searching for food and a mate. What’s more, they come with their own built-in GPS, returning to the exact beach where they were born to lay their own eggs. Kids will learn all about these tranquil and mysterious animals through brilliant photography and illustrations, plus the trusted and distinctive content you love from NG Kids!

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Childrens, Science, Picture Books, School, Science Nature

36 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 12, 2011

Reviews

[Mariah Roze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love National Geographic! This is helping me with my animal unit in science :) The perfect reading level for my students!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learned a lot about sea turtles.

[Peacegal · Rating 5 out of 5]

National Geographic continues its high-quality series of children's books with Sea Turtles. I was heartened to see that this is not just a book about sea turtles, but a book about protecting them, as well.

With vibrant photos and beginning-reader text, youngsters are introduced to the wide world of sea turtles. Some of these animals are highly endangered, and the book doesn't shy away from explaining this in an age-appropriate way. Best of all, the author suggests ways that children can help turtles--such as by not littering with plastic bags and not releasing balloons into the environment (a timely thought, as balloon launches seem to be making a resurgence at family-themed events).

[Veronica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this one! I am loving the nonfiction, national geographic books! I think they do a great job of providing information on a certain subject but not overwhelming the reader with too much. This one is about sea turtles- my favorite aquatic life! I felt like before reading this book I already knew a fair bit about sea turtles. However, I was surprised to found out some interesting facts. For example, the largest sea turtle can grow up to seven feet long and weigh over 2000 pounds! That's amazing. Throughout the book, there are keywords that are classified as 'turtle terms'- how cute. My favorite pages, though, are the ones having to do with the baby sea turtles. Baby sea turtles are so cute. It is literally on my bucket list to help new baby turtles get delivered safely into the ocean. Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I feel like as a teacher you could uses these books as a great resource for a science unit.

[Miranda Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sea Turtles by Laura Marsh is an informational text that is created by National Geographic Kids about sea turtles. There is information about where the sea turtles live. There is a diagram of a sea turtle that describes the different parts of its body and how it is used. There are over seven types of sea turtles in the whole world! Which I didn’t know until I read this book. There is also information about baby sea turtles and how they start off as an egg. I think this would be a great book that students could read if they are interested in sea turtles. I think could be great to use as an example for a lesson that is getting students thinking about an animal research project of choice in class. I overall think this book has a lot of valuable information and I would include it in my classroom library.

[Connie Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book and taught me many facts that I didn't know about sea turtles. Like there are seven different kinds, they breathe air and hold their breath under water, and a female sea turtle generally goes back to the same beach where she hatched to lay her eggs. The book uses "turtle terms" to explain words that children might not be familiar with to better understand what they are learning. It also incorporates some silly jokes throughout the book. It states facts on how long sea turtles live, how big they can grow, what they eat, what endangers them, and so much more. I found it interesting that it talks about the big oil spill that many of us probably remember from 2010.

I would keep this book in my classroom. It is always interesting to learn all of the fun facts about animals and reptiles that live among us.

[Heather Knight]

This book is all about the life of a sea turtle and how they survive. It tells us about how Sea Turtles hatch on land, but live in the water. Sea Turtles can also grow up to be seven feet long. Sea Turtles are one of only a few reptiles that live in the sea. This book also gives a list of definitions that describe the Sea Turtles and gives multiple jokes revolving around them. The book tells us about multiple different types of Sea Turtles and where they live. Did you know that female Sea Turtles return to the same beach that they were born on to lay their eggs?

Sea Turtles are my favorite animals, so I really enjoyed this book! It is full of useful information, and it is told in a way that children would find interesting instead of just listing facts.

[Makenzie Soeken · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very fun informational book filled with a lot of bright colors, real-life photos, and diagrams. I like this book because it not only has lines of traditional text, but also included other features such as diagrams, jokes, pictures, and "turtle terms" for vocabulary. Topics covered in this short informational book were types of turtles, turtle anatomy, nesting, hatchlings, diet, and how to help protect sea turtles. This short informational book was filled with information, yet captured and maintained my attention.

[Destiny Rodriguez]

Key Words: Non-Fiction, Magazine, Turtles
Summary:
National Geographic Readers: Sea Turtle is a very informative book about sea turtles. It has lots of very interesting facts and stunning visuals.
Prompt:
The type of sub-category of the informational text of the book National Geographic Readers: Sea Turtles is an informational picture book. They give very authentic graphic visuals along with interesting facts about turtles.

[libs :p · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a teenager, I am obviously not the target demographic of this book. However, I wanted to learn about turtles, so I picked it up.

It is very clear and concise and has given me a lot of information about turtles.

[Alex Wallen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt this book was really interesting, It is great for kids as it teaches a lot about sea turtles and how they live. There are a lot of different pictures and graphs that keep it fresh, at the top of some pages there are some jokes as well to keep it fresh and fun.

[Maya Engbrecht · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genre: Informational Nonfiction
Grades 1-3
This is a great informational book on sea turtles! This book provides lots of great facts and information on the many different aspects of sea turtles. I love the inclusion of different diagrams and graphics throughout the book.

[Keshia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book! I didn't know there were so many types of sea turtles. Loved the photographs. And, yes, the jokes too!

[Pamela Kinslow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A National Geographic Kids book that gives a good overview of sea turtles with some nice pictures.

[Mae Hinson]

Could be read during science class when discussing sea animals or the ocean in general. Also a good mentor text to students before they write their own nonfiction book

[Kiki · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with almost all National Geographic readers, this is age appropriate, full of fascinating facts and eye catching photos, educational and engaging.

[Villain E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Facts and photos about sea turtles, including conservation topics.

[Before Sunset · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The largest sea turtle is the Leatherback. It can grow up to seven feet long and weigh more than 2,000 pounds. That's about ten men put together!”

[Laila m. · Rating 5 out of 5]

My daughter loved this and read the entire thing in an hour, she’s 6 so that says a lot for keeping kids engaged.

[KaitandMaddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maddie and I read a bunch of fish/water mammal themed books this evening and really enjoyed them all.

[Jody Kyburz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hooray for Sea Turtles! Save them!

[Madison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This informational book is all about sea turtles. There are lots of pictures to go along with the information. There are also fun facts throughout the book, as well as additional information in the back of the book.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a perfect book to learn all about sea turtles, from the basic facts to fun trivia. This is a great book for kids to learn about sea turtles, straight to the point but enough fun photos and information to analyze to keep kids engaged!

[Regan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is all about sea turtles. different ways you can help and save them, their feeding, their home, and how little baby sea turtles survive right after birth.
Regardless of the fact that this is a kids informational book, it has very good information about sea turtles that i did not know about. Reading books like these even as you get older I think is good because as we get older, we often do not have time to read about random things like this. This allows us to catch up on things and know random knowledge without having to analyze it or study it.
The tone of this book is very fun and uplifting because of the colors and pictures but also the world choice. The word choice is very simple and straight forward which allows young readers to remember things, as well as analyze. The book features are very helpful when reading because it gives better understanding when after the images as well at the trivia. The trivia makes it possible kids to think analyze and reflect on what they have learned so far. It is a great tool for comprehending.

[Madison Gault]

Nonfiction
Grade: 1-2
Lexile Level: NC620L

As turtles are my favorite animal, I enjoyed this book. I think that young children would enjoy this book and learning about the 7 different kinds of sea turtles. Highly reccomend this educational read.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives general information about sea turtles, where and how they live, the different types of turtles, and why they are endangered. I confess, I didn't really think that I would learn anything new from this book, after all it is for beginning readers, but I did learn some cool new things. For example, the leatherback turtle is not only the biggest sea turtle species (up to 7 feet long), but it doesn't have a hard shell, just rubbery skin with small bones underneath. Here are some of the things that I loved about this book:

The book starts with a riddle, a perfect way to introduce the book (you'll need to hide the cover to do this).
There are fun riddles/jokes throughout the book (kids love riddles and jokes).
The bright, clear illustrations match the text perfectly.
The captions that identify the kind of turtle in each photograph.
The glossary that defines key words and shows a picture to help the reader understand each term.
A fill-in-the-blank paragraph at the end that helps students use the new vocabulary.

I highly recommend this book and others in the series for students who love animals, jokes, and cool facts to share.

[Torrie Heller · Rating 5 out of 5]

type: nonfiction
genre:picture book
awards: none
summary: This book is all about different species of Sea turtles. It talks about where sea turtles live, how the reproduce, how big they are, what they eat, what some dangers to them are and more! I found it interesting that sea turtles hatch only 50-70 days after they are laid.
1 critique: I love this book! I like how it talks about all the different species of sea turtles, instead of just the green turtle and the leather back turtle which are the two most popular. It also includes real pictures so you are looking at the real turtle and not just a drawling of one.
question: Have you ever seen a sea turtle, what kind was it? What is one thing you learned from this book?
Craft element:I would use this to teach the difference between fiction and non-fiction, I would do this because this is a good example of non-fiction just teaching facts.

[Caroline Petrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sea Turtles by Laura Marsh

Description: This is an all about sea turtles book that highlights many classic text features such as photographs with captions, highlighted vocabulary words, a glossary and headings. The reading level is fairly easy so children can pay particular attention to the text features.

Mini Lesson: Use of text features to support main idea and details. This book would be ideal to show children how to incorporate many text features into nonfiction writing to support the main idea. Model how to develop headings based on the main idea and incorporate photography, captions, etc. to provide supporting details.

Standards
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.2a Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.2b Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details.

[Linda Branich · Rating 4 out of 5]

This National Geographic Level 2 Reading Independently book is chock full of photographs. The seven kinds of sea turtles are addressed, as well as the anatomy, habitat, diet, nesting and hatching, environmental concerns for the sea turtles, protection for them, jokes and riddles that are age appropriate. A beautiful glossary with photographs is included on the last page.

THE BOOK IS INEXPENSIVE ($3.99 US). It is soft cover with glossy pages that make the photos pop.