Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm
Newbery Honor Book (2010)
Golden Kite Award Winner
The main character Turtle is eleven years old and is sent to Key West by her mother to live with relatives. She is tough on the outside but has a tender underbelly like the creature she is named for. The story is engaging and we are rooting for Turtle throughout her trials and tribulations in dealing with her new found cousins and their rules. Turtle is proud of her shoes that her mom's boyfriend bought for her before sending her South to Florida. They stick out in her new environment as no kids where shoes in the keys. They end up being stolen and the first thing she wants to do is replace them but as parts of her life become unraveled and a sense of hope rises in her she realizes that her place is in the keys with her extended family and father and the shoes she longed for no longer fit; they are tight and pinch and inhibit her feet from being free. This is symbolic of her transition from a mainland girl to an official "Conch".
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