I have always longed for the quiet life. So begins Sunny Boy’s tale. As a young tortoise, he enjoys a peaceful life – inhaling the sweet smell of orchids, reciting Latin, licking stamps – year after quiet year. But fate twists, and our hero falls into the hands of Biff the Brave, an accident-prone performer of daredevil deeds. When Biff attempts his most dangerous stunt – going over Niagara Falls in a barrel – the shy and retiring Sunny Boy is suddenly swept into history’s limelight. This wild, funny tale is based on the story of an actual tortoise who went over the falls. Exuberant watercolors full of witty details add to this celebration of the adventurous spirit that resides in us all.

Four disparate people confront each other, their memory, and their responsibility at the emergency room of a hospital when brought together by the crisis of a teenager suffering a psychiatric episode. Tortoise Boy is a chamber play, four monologues, or mono-dialogues, if you will. The actors play many characters to tell the story, and they are also four voices, four instruments--a quartet--allowing them at times to step beside characters and show the story from other points of view. Can we have a future without a past? Is there any meaning to a past that has no future? When do our memories open doors, and when do they close them? What's best forgotten? What's indelible? The ancient Greeks believed that memory is the mother of the muses, and the words memory, muse, and music all share a common root.

A rain forest fable from Caldecott medalist Gerald McDermott

Tortoise is the first cultural history of these long-lived and intriguing creatures, which have existed for more than 200 million years. The book covers tortoises worldwide, in evolution, myth and reality, ranging across paleontology, natural history, myth, folklore, art forms, literature, veterinary medicine and trade regulations. The tortoise has been seen as an Atlas-like creature supporting the world, as the origin of music and as a philosophical paradox. Peter Young examines the tortoise in all these guises, as well as a military tactical formation, its exploitation by mariners and others for food, as ornament (in tortoiseshell), as a motif in art, and in space research. He looks at the movement away from exploitation to conservation and even the uses of the tortoise in advertising. As well as examples of species, illustrations from around the world include monuments, sculptures, coins, stamps, objets d’art, drawings, cartoons, advertisements and X-rays. The book will appeal not only to tortoise lovers but also to readers of cultural histories around the world. "Peter Young’s Tortoise, on the other claw, can be warmly recommended."—Jonathan Bate, The Times

A young tortoise talks to her grandfather about taking life slowly, compared to jackrabbits and humans.

"A sweet read-aloud for first-time tortoise owners." --Kirkus, starred review Could there be any better pet than a puppy? One young girl is about to find out. From beloved author Dave Keane and acclaimed illustrator K.G. Campbell, a laugh-out-loud story of unexpected friendship! When the spunky, loveable narrator receives a tortoise for her birthday, instead of the cuddly puppy she’s longed for her entire life, she’s more than a little disappointed. But while her new lump of a pet isn’t what she dreamed of, it doesn’t take long—between tortoise-on-skateboard walks, sparkly shell makeovers, and a lemonade stand selling chances to hold a real life tortoise—for the little girl to change her mind—sort of. But when her pet goes missing, all she wants is to be reunited with her new best friend.

It’s a black karoo night and a young woman covered in blood is running along a deserted dust track. Siena must reach Seekoegat Primary School, the only safe place she knows, but it’s a long way to run, a three-day ride on a donkey cart. As Siena runs, her story, and the story of her two friends, comes alive. Growing up with her in the margins was Boetie, neglected and wild, and Kriekie, whose mother worked the n1 truck-stops. When they meet again as grownups, the three must relive the devastating events that set them each on a new path.