Turtle Bay

This is a beautifully illustrated story of "Jiro-San," the supposedly "strange" older man who sweeps the beach, listens to birds, and waits mysteriously for something from the sea. Taro thinks Jiro-San is "old and wise," but his sister Yuko considers him "weird." Jiro-san enlists the boy's help in sweeping the beach, and, for a moment, he wonders whether Taro was right about the "old" man. However, Jiro-San explains that his sea friends won't swim to this beach if they could get hurt on the scattered garbage. Taro and Jiro-San explore the inner bay, and in a series of striking tonal illustrations (one is mostly purples, another blues, and yet rich with another browns and yellows), the two see many wonders: Dolphins, swordfish, and a whale. "'Are they your old friends?' Taro asked." "`They're friends,' said Jiro-San, `but not the old friends I meant. Maybe they will come tomorrow.'" Finally, Yuko joins the man and Taro, and they see an approaching shape: "It was huge and bobbed up and down on the water like an enormous cork. At last, the children could see what it was-a turtle!" The next few pages show the huge turtle laying her eggs; eight weeks later, hundreds hatch from under the sand and crawl towards the beach. Yuko finally agrees with her brother that this is a wise man indeed-"full of wonderful secrets." A one-page afterward ("About Sea Turtles") explains the breeding of young loggerhead turtles, and the need for protecting them. Although I enjoyed the book very much, especially Nilesh Mistry's vivid and imaginative pictures, I felt just a little disappointed at its conclusion. Both the last picture (the turtles scurrying to the sea in an almost abstract pattern) and the text (the realization that Jiro-San is wise, not "crazy") seem slightly anticlimactic, especially after the preceding excitement. Still, the book has excellent and unique pictures, a nicely accomplished intergenerational theme, and exciting depictions of various ocean animals. The story appears to take place in Japan, but the setting is tangential to the story.

Why is Jiro-San sweeping the beach?My 8 year old son loves turtles and he loves this book. We enjoyed it together as a read-aloud and now he reads it over and over to himself. The pictures are breath-taking with rich colors and really bring the story to life. Mystery and wonder abound as a wise old man becomes friends with a boy and his sister.