ALA Booklist (Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 CST 2001)

Simple, lyrical words and bright, acrylic double-page pictures convey the astonishing facts about the Loggerhead sea turtle. The story is told by focusing on one newly hatched baby far out to sea in a tangle of weed and driftwood: how she moves (flapping her long front flippers like wings . . . flying underwater); how she breathes; and how she grows during years of traveling thousands of miles from cool seaweed jungles to turquoise lagoons, where she munches on coral. Then the miracle after 30 years: now big as a barrel, she returns to the beach where she was born to mate and lay her eggs. With the narrative about one turtle, there are also a few notes in smaller type that fill in the background, and there's an index to particular topics. Without condescension, this tells a powerful nature story for a young audience. Those who want more can go on to Kathryn Lasky's excellent photo-essay Interrupted Journey (2001), which adds fascinating detail about current efforts at conservation.

Horn Book (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2002)

This story follows one female loggerhead turtle from infancy to adulthood, when she lays her own eggs. While younger readers may not comprehend the fast forwards ("For thirty years you might not find her. Then one summer night she arrives, on the beach where she was born"), they will nonetheless enjoy the simple descriptions of sea turtle behavior and the realistic illustrations. Ind.

Kirkus Reviews

This beautifully designed story of a loggerhead sea turtle uses an oversized format and glorious acrylic paintings for a work that is both entertaining and informative. Davies ( Bat Loves the Night , p. 1120, etc.) focuses on one female turtle called Loggerhead, recounting her life from infancy through her own eggs hatching 30 years later on the same beach where Loggerhead was born. In an inspired design device, the main story is told with large type set against the turquoise blue of the ocean or the soft beige of the beach, and additional relevant facts are included in a smaller typeface set in blocks of wavy lines that are smoothly incorporated into many spreads. Through this device, an adult reader can focus on just Loggerhead's individual story (saving the additional facts for later), or pause during the story to include the deeper explanations of sea turtle biology and behavior. Chapman's ( One Duck Stuck , not reviewed, etc.) exquisite paintings bring Loggerhead's world to life, with full-bleed spreads of the big, blue ocean and groups of smaller illustrations framed in soft green. The baby sea turtle on the cover looks as though she might crawl right off the cover and into your hand, and it's hard to imagine a more appealing sea creature. Recommended for school- and public-library collections. (Picture book/nonfiction. 4-8)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

"Davies's dramatic rendering of the life cycle of the Loggerhead turtle draws readers into the mysteries of this reclusive deep-sea creature," said <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">PW, "while Chapman's aqua-tinted spreads bring the ocean world to life in all its majestic beauty." Ages 5-8.<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC""> (May)

School Library Journal

K-Gr 2-This nicely developed picture-book introduction to the loggerhead turtle sketches the life experiences of a typical female through text and broad acrylic views. The author exhibits a flair for alliteration and imagery in her descriptive narrative about this sea animal: "Just beneath the surface is a tangle of weed and driftwood where tiny creatures cling. This is the nursery of a sea turtle." Several pages follow the creature's early period and departure for the larger sea, and then the years of growth and travel are skimmed until her eventual return to the beach of her birth to lay her own eggs. On many pages curving lines of smaller type add bits of explanation, augmenting the story line. The double-spread paintings, occasionally alternating with smaller pictures set on aqua pages, focus on the turtle, with a few water plants suggesting underwater detail. A fine bed of blue crabs on which the turtle feasts is the only view of other animals sharing the ocean habitat until a concluding beach scenario where gulls and crabs threaten the newly hatched turtles who are starting the cycle anew. A very brief introduction identifies this turtle as a loggerhead. Gail Gibbons's Sea Turtles (Holiday, 1995) and Brenda Guiberson's Into the Sea (Holt, l995) offer young readers more information on this interesting animal. Broadly sketched in good language and pictures for read-aloud sharing, Davies's title will be enjoyed as a glimpse into the ways of the remarkable giant sea turtles.-Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.