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Tortoise or Turtle?

Book cover for Vampire...Tortoise?! with an illustrated desert tortoise with what appears to be blood dripping from its mouth.

Vampire…Tortoise?!

 A monster’s beak, dripping red! The animals of the Sonoran Desert fear for their lives. Is it a Vampire coming to drink their blood? Explore this mystery alongside animals and plants of the Sonoran Desert. 

Colorfully Illustrated
by Anderson Atlas

This educational fiction story is about a desert tortoise and friends in the Sonoran Desert. This picture book is fun, colorful, sort-of spooky that will have kids learning facts about native animals and not even know it! All the plants and animals in the book are readily found and identifiable in the Sonoran Desert. Photos and scientific names of the plants and animals featured in the story can be found in the back of the book.

 

a green book cover with an illustration of a tortoise standing on hind legs, pointing at the viewer

Voted 5-Stars by the
Preschool Crowd, Who Now
know the Differences Between
Turtles and Tortoises.

Written in Rhyme
20 Pages

Colorfully Illustrated
by Nicholas Thorpe

There are many differences between tortoises and turtles, and the wise tortoise who narrates this book tells us about ten of those differences–in rhyme.

Click Here for Complete
Book Description

She also says, “Don’t Call Me Turtle!”

woman reads book to tortoise Myrtle, Elaine’s red-foot tortoise grew so exasperated by being called a ‘turtle’ that she asked Elaine to write her story. Here they are together, with Elaine reading the book to Myrtle shortly after it was published.

A Review of Don’t Call Me Turtle! By Helen Woodhams
Arizona Daily Star:

“To the casual observer, turtles and tortoises appear to share so many similarities that we often use the names “turtle” and “tortoise” interchangeably. But the fact is that they couldn’t be more different, says Elaine Powers, whose charming picture book employs clever rhymes and colorful illustrations to demonstrate why the two should never be confused.

To begin with, while some turtles were built to paddle around in the water, she says, tortoises were not – throw a tortoise in the water, and he’ll drown. And that’s just the beginning of her lesson about these special — and very distinctive — reptiles, a lesson sure to fascinate junior naturalists and animal lovers.”

Do you know the differences between
 the land-dwelling Hickatee and the
ocean-dwelling Sea Turtle?
Learn about them inside.

Reading Level:
Ages 6+

Written in Rhyme
45 Pages

Wonderful Illustrations
of the Native Hickatee Turtle
and Sea Turtles
by Anderson Atlas

Learn all about the endemic Hickatee turtle who has so many troubles–well-meaning humans who throw them to their deaths into the ocean, cars that run over them, loss of land to lay their eggs, and cousins pushing them out.

Shows physical traits and the differences between these land-dwelling turtles and the sea turtles that do reside in the ocean.

Make friends with the Hickatee today!