Turbo Tortoise by Steve Cole and Sam Church

October 5th, 2010
Paperback
Review Copy

Children's Picture Book

Summary from Random House

The garden's in trouble!
Slimy SUPER-SLUGS led by the evil CYBER SNAIL are headed for the vegetable patch.

T.T. jumps out of the tree and out of his shell. With a backflip and a bump he lands in a leaf-pile. There's a clank and a clonk, a rustle and a bonk. He is ready for action in his turbo shell with super powered jets - he is TURBO TORTOISE - superhero!

Can Turbo Tortoise and his trusty sidekick, Karate Crow, defeat the evil Cyber Snail and save the vegetable patch from destruction?

Mom's Thoughts

I thought this would be an instant hit. The book is set up like a graphic novel (comic book), which is what the eight-year-old Eldest is in to. There is a turtle (excuse me, tortoise) as the main character, and who doesn't love a tortoise?

Eh, not so much. The writing itself is catchy. There's a good bedtime rhythm to the books. It's easy to make funny faces and silly voices with this book. My only real complaint is that the actions scenes were difficult to read because of the coloring. There's a water-color feel to some of the pages and it's hard to find the text in the middle of the scribbles.

Kids' Thoughts

Little Miss Pink hates this book. She's five, and she's usually into action and adventure, but she didn't like the pictures. As a pre-reader, this book doesn't appeal to her.

Eldest, 8, likes this book, but she struggles to read it on her own. As fun as it is, "Extraordinarily extraordinary!" is too much of a mouthful for her right now. She'll flip through the book, and then move on to the comic books she can read with ease.

Final Thoughts

This is a cute book that I'll keep in the library for when Little Boy Blue is old enough to sit still for books. I think the choppy art and slimy slugs might appeal more to a little boy than it does to his sisters.