The True and Lucky Life of a Turtle
by Sy Montgomery; illus. by Matt Patterson
Primary    Clarion/HarperCollins    40 pp.
9/25    9780063325166    $19.99

In a previous collaboration (The Book of Turtles, rev. 7/23), Montgomery and Patterson briefly featured a large snapping turtle, a.k.a. Fire Chief. Now Fire Chief gets a starring role in his own tale, told with a storyteller’s cadence, which traces approximately sixty years of his life from birth to the present. Realistic illustrations mirror the brief chronological text in this accessible account. The turtle’s first years are lucky ones. After evading predators at birth, he settles in a pond next to a fire station (the provenance of his name). Over the next ten years or so, he expands his surroundings to include a second pond located across a rural road, where he spends each winter. He’s lucky in making this twice-annual journey, until he’s not: a truck strikes the turtle, gravely injuring him. Two women who run the Turtle Rescue League repair his shell and give him physical therapy to strengthen his legs. When he is ready to be reintroduced into his pond, there are still questions: can he survive crossing the road twice a year? Can any turtle? Human habitat encroachment causes Fire Chief’s problem, but human concern and persistence find a solution for him. Back matter details the work of the Rescue League, provides information on handling injured turtles in the wild, adds more information about these reptiles, and includes a bibliography.

From the September/October 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.