Review by Ian Keogh

Everything is joyful in Turtleland, where the purple turtles play around, every single one of them with a name beginning with the letter T. Tootie is the main character, and on the sample art it’s they who first meet the strange creature without a shell that drops from the sky. They’re friendly, though, and it’s an easy enough matter to sort out the newly named Teeny with a shell so they can join in all the fun.

With simple art and always friendly characters, Tara J. Hannon is aiming at the younger end of book readers as she has Teeny integrate into the creatively conceived games the turtles play. They’re much like the games for young children, except their shells offer extra options. The crisis point comes when Teeny suddenly grows a tail feather. It’s removed, although not without difficulty, but leads to Teeny’s concerns about what it was and whether it will return.

This is partially a morality tale about accepting differences, and not being overly concerned about appearances, but both notions are buried deep enough within the frolics that there aren’t concerns about obvious preaching. The single inexplicable choice Hannon makes is to have the name Birtle as part of the title and then not use it within until the final page. Yes, it makes for a creative title, but then there’s a duty to make use of the name, particularly as following book Birtle and the (very) Unwelcome Garry makes it clear Birtle is the ongoing character, not the turtles.

Otherwise the emphasis is on fun all the way through, and younger readers ought to laugh at the silly escapades.