Turtle Crossing by Rick Chrustowski

Chrustowski, R. (2006). Turtle crossing. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

Summary:
Turtle Crossing is a picture biography of a painted turtle! It begins with the birth of the turtles underground and describes how they claw their way to the top of the earth, find water, and eat. The book describes how turtles hibernate at the bottom of the pond for months at a time and what they do after their hibernation. After the turtle in the story has mated with a male turtle, she crosses the road to lay her 5 eggs in a hole that she digs in a field. As she is crossing the road to get back to the pond, a car is seen coming down the road so she pulls herself into her shell. The car stops and a little boy gets out, picks her up, and places her at the edge of the pond. In spring, the book tells the reader that the babies will hatch and cross the road, but the momma may never see them.

Ages:
1st through 3rd grade

Credibility of Author:
Rick Chrustowski decided to write this book after driving down a road and seeing a turtle crossing sign. This sign peaked his curiosity to he found a wetland that had a road going through it. He sat out beside a pond for days and watched the turtles cross the road.

National Standards that this book relates to:
The science standards met are Science as inquiry and Life Science.

Access Features:
In the back of the book there is a section entitled Turtle Crossing. This section gives the reader more information about turtles.

Description of the Illustrations:
Rick Chrustowski also illustrated this book. He used pictures that he had taken while out in the wetlands and a turtle shell that he had found years ago to be sure that his drawings were correct. He used forty layers of colored pencil over watercolor wash to create the illustrations.

Awards:
I could not find any awards that this book had won, but it should have!

Related Texts:
Army Ant Parade, Bright Beetle, and Blue Bird Sky all written by Rick Chrustowski.

My response to the book:
This book is a great way to teach about the life cycle of a turtle and the habitat of a turtle. The illustrations do a wonderful job of showing children the pond where the turtles live. The text is very simple to read and kids will definitely enjoy it and learn from it. I learned that turtles hibernate at the bottom of ponds when ice begins to cover the pond!

How I would use this book in my class:
I will definitely be using this book when studying about habitats!

This book has 29 pages.
If you read any books by Rick Chrustowski, be sure to visit his website, http://www.rickchrustowski.com, because each book he has written has a slide show that describes how he went about preparing to write the book and an art activity that corresponds with the book!!!