Page 22 - The Jewish Voice - September '23

Page 22, The Jewish Voice

arts & entertainment

Book Review… breathing process explained join Sy, Matt and Natasha who drive to the sites and collect the
in the book. (Turtles that dozens of baby turtle hatchlings – each only the size of a quarter
Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, live solely on land are called coin – and bring them back to the rescue center where they can
Shell by Shattered Shell tortoises.) Females, when be cared for until they are big enough to be released into their
ready to lay their eggs, proper habitat without running the risk of either road traffic or
By Nils A. Shapiro instinctively return to the attack by predators because of their tiny size.
People throughout the place on land where they With Sy and Matt, we will witness several important releases
world will consider this book themselves were born. With into the wild, including the hatchlings from the parking lot
a “must read” when they see strong legs they dig holes – and one very tender and emotional gift of freedom for one
the name of award-winning in the dirt, deposit various very special turtle, Nibbles, in the keeping of a promise made
author Sy Montgomery on its numbers of eggs depending a decade earlier – for turtles ready to face lives that can last for
front cover. Her more than on the turtle species, then half a century or more, long after Sy and Matt and Alexxia and
30 previous books include cover the nest and return to Natasha are gone. It is awesome to contemplate how many lives
those which have climbed the the water or wooded area have already been saved.
bestseller lists in 25 countries. where they live. When the So when at last Sy devotes herself to reflecting inwardly on
The Boston Globe has eggs hatch, the hatchlings (baby turtles) instinctively find their life and time and reveals her own deeply personal feelings about
referred to Sy Montgomery as way to their natural habitat. Depending again on the species, the meaning of it all, we are privileged to understand more about
“a combination of Indiana Jones and Emily Dickinson” for her some turtles can live for up to 250 years, many for 100 years. her … and perhaps about ourselves.
ability to describe so beautifully her extraordinary adventures, The problem is that over the years and centuries, mankind
including being chased by a silverback gorilla in Africa, hunted has changed the environment so drastically that the turtles’
by man-eating tigers in India (which became the subject of a instincts often prove fatal. For example, the path from a turtle’s The Book of Turtles
National Geographic TV special), working in a pit with 18,000 pond to the place where it was born, perhaps many yards away,
snakes, studying octopuses in the Gulf of Mexico, swimming may now require crossing a highway with the result that one of A Book for Children by Sy Montgomery
with manta rays and sharks, being undressed by a wild the most common and serious emergencies brought to the Turtle and Matt Patterson
orangutan, and so many more … never once harming another Rescue League involves patients with cracked or crushed shells
creature. She even encouraged a giant tarantula to walk across or legs or internal injuries who have been run over by cars. Each An oversized
the palm of her hand. is treated with expert care. Some will survive, some will not. book by Sy
I am familiar with Montgomery’s works, having read, Hundreds of thousands of turtles die this way each year on roads Montgomery with
loved and reviewed six of them in earlier columns. So it was and highways on the way to laying their eggs or returning. full-color, almost
with much eagerness that I looked forward to this newest Some turtles are brought in who have been bitten by photo-realistic,
book – although with some degree of apprehension since the unleashed dogs who see it as some kind of toy. We even witness pa i n t i ngs by
subject matter, turtles, seemed a bit tame for this author’s often here a turtle with an arrow sticking out from its neck that was award-winning
dangerous escapades. To say that I was in for a surprise is the shot by someone “just for fun.” illustrator Matt Book jacket when opened shows
understatement of the year! As Sy and Matt volunteer at the hospital and get to know each Patterson of more life-size painting of Burmese star
As expected, this newest of Montgomery’s works proved of the turtles by name (or number) and individual personality, than 30 turtle tortoise.
to be as wonderfully informative about its subject as are all we share that journey along with them, and the awareness of species, enchants
her other works. You will learn many hundreds of fascinating what these creatures are going through becomes a part of our children and young readers with such interesting facts
facts about the 300 species of the world’s turtles, creatures own experience. as the turtle who lived for 288 years (he was alive
that have walked this Earth for 250 million years and outlived When word reaches the league that the nesting sites at a when George Washington was born!), the largest and
the dinosaurs – taking to the seas when the asteroid that business’s large parking lot (which had been thoughtfully roped smallest, fastest and flattest turtles, the ones with
crashed on our planet extinguished all other life on land – off from cars in advance by the company’s compassionate longest necks, most colorful, stinkiest … and more!
only to become endangered today because of the deadliest management) are showing signs of activity in the eggs, we
of all predators: humans.
What is different about this newest book is that it reveals
more about Sy Montgomery the author herself than ever
before as she becomes emotionally involved in the events
she describes for us here. The result is that I left many of
the pages stained wet with my own tears of empathy … as I
suspect many readers will.
Interestingly, while most of Sy’s adventures have been set
in all corners of the globe, this one required Sy and a friend
of hers, Matt Patterson, to drive just several hours from their
New Hampshire homes to Southern Massachusetts when they
learned of a private nonprofit turtle rehabilitation center there
and decided to volunteer their services. Matt is an award-winning
wildlife artist whose black-and-white drawings of various turtle
species are included in the book.
Sy and Matt’s gratifying experiences over several years at
the Turtle Rescue League, and which continue to the present
day, are what motivated the writing of this new book. What
they learn as volunteers, and we along with them, is fascinating,
inspiring, yet often shocking and deeply moving.
To begin with, since turtles are in the category of reptiles
their faces have fixed features that cannot express feelings of
any kind, so it is difficult for most people to think of them as
“pets.” But we soon discover that each is an individual with
its own personality, and in these pages we get to meet many
turtles who have bonded with their “people,” for example
following them around the house and even wanting their
necks and shells scratched.
They are also smart: Tests have shown that some turtles
are able to navigate mazes for food rewards as quickly as can
laboratory rats.
The two women who started the Turtle Rescue League
in 2009 are Alexxia Bell and her partner, Natasha Nowick,
who is legally blind yet somehow skillfully performs every ~ Bathing, Dressing, Personal Care ~ Fall Risk Prevention
task both inside the hospital and out among the fields ~ Medication Reminders, Doctor Visits ~ Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Care
and ponds during the rescue and release operations. They ~ Shopping, Errands, Companionship ~ Transition Home from Hospital or Rehab
have assembled a team of many volunteers throughout
Massachusetts and neighboring states who bring to them ~ Meal Preparation, Light Housekeeping ~ Hourly to 24-Hour Care
injured turtles in need of their help, knowing of this facility’s ~ Pet Friendly ~ Rigorous Background Checks
commitment: “Never give up on a turtle.”
At any one time there are more than 200 patients in their care,
fed daily and stacked high in appropriately equipped tanks and Respectful of Jewish Traditions.
bins. At first, each is given a number. Not until it is certain that
the turtle will survive is it given a name because of the emotional
attachment that develops between humans and turtles until the
patient is released back into the wild where it was found, after 561-328-7611
care that can often take years of treatment.
Many turtle species live in water, even able to stay visitingangels.com/palmbeaches
underwater for as long as months at a time through a special lic# 299994617