Page 18 - PGA Community News - September '23

Page 18, PGA C.A.N.! September 2023 September 2023
Book Review…

With Sy and Matt, we will witness several important releases
Of Time And Turtles: Mending The of eggs depending on the turtle into the wild, including the hatchlings from the parking lot
species, then cover the nest and
World, Shell By Shattered Shell return to the water or wooded area – and one very tender and emotional gift of freedom for one
where they live. When the eggs very special turtle, Nibbles, in the keeping of a promise made
By Nils A. Shapiro hatch, the hatchlings (baby turtles) a decade earlier – for turtles ready to face lives that can last for
People throughout the instinctively find their way to their half a century or more, long after Sy and Matt and Alexxia and
world will consider this book natural habitat. Depending again Natasha are gone. It is awesome to contemplate how many lives
a “must read” when they see on the species, some turtles can have already been saved.
the name of award-winning live for up to 250 years, many for So when at last Sy devotes herself to reflecting inwardly on
author Sy Montgomery on its 100 years. life and time and reveals her own deeply personal feelings about
front cover. Her more than The problem is that over the the meaning of it all, we are privileged to understand more about
30 previous books include years and centuries, mankind her … and perhaps about ourselves.
those which have climbed the has changed the environment *****
bestseller lists in 25 countries. so drastically that the turtles’ instincts often prove fatal. For
The Boston Globe has example, the path from a turtle’s pond to the place where it was The Book Of Turtles
referred to Sy Montgomery born, perhaps many yards away, may now require crossing a
as “a combination of Indiana Jones and Emily Dickinson” highway with the result that one of the most common and serious A Book For Children By Sy Montgomery
for her ability to describe so beautifully her extraordinary emergencies brought to the Turtle Rescue League involves And Matt Patterson
adventures, including being chased by a silverback gorilla in patients with cracked or crushed shells or legs or internal injuries
Africa, hunted by man-eating tigers in India (which became who have been run over by cars. Each is treated with expert An oversized book by Sy Montgomery with full-
the subject of a National Geographic TV special), working care. Some will survive, some will not. Hundreds of thousands color, almost photo-realistic, paintings by award-
in a pit with 18,000 snakes, studying octopuses in the Gulf of turtles die this way each year on roads and highways on the winning illustrator Matt Patterson of more than 30 turtle
of Mexico, swimming with manta rays and sharks, being way to laying their eggs or returning. species, enchants children and young readers with such
undressed by a wild orangutan, and so many more … never Some turtles are brought in who have been bitten by unleashed interesting facts as the turtle who lived for 288 years
once harming another creature. She even encouraged a giant dogs who see it as some kind of toy. We even witness here a (he was alive when George Washington was born!), the
tarantula to walk across the palm of her hand. turtle with an arrow sticking out from its neck that was shot by largest and smallest, fastest and flattest turtles, the ones
I am familiar with Montgomery’s works, having read, someone “just for fun.” with longest necks, most colorful, stinkiest … and more!
loved and reviewed six of them in earlier columns. So it was As Sy and Matt volunteer at the hospital and get to know each
with much eagerness that I looked forward to this newest of the turtles by name (or number) and individual personality, we
book – although with some degree of apprehension since the share that journey along with them, and the awareness of what
subject matter, turtles, seemed a bit tame for this author’s often these creatures are going through becomes a part of our own
dangerous escapades. To say that I was in for a surprise is the experience.
understatement of the year! When word reaches the league that the nesting sites at a
As expected, this newest of Montgomery’s works proved business’s large parking lot (which had been thoughtfully roped
to be as wonderfully informative about its subject as are all her off from cars in advance by the company’s compassionate
other works. You will learn many hundreds of fascinating facts management) are showing signs of activity in the eggs, we
about the 300 species of the world’s turtles, creatures that have join Sy, Matt and Natasha who drive to the sites and collect the
walked this Earth for 250 million years and outlived the dinosaurs dozens of baby turtle hatchlings – each only the size of a quarter
– taking to the seas when the asteroid that crashed on our planet coin – and bring them back to the rescue center where they can
extinguished all other life on land – only to become endangered be cared for until they are big enough to be released into their Book jacket when opened shows life-size painting of
today because of the deadliest of all predators: humans. proper habitat without running the risk of either road traffic or Burmese star tortoise.
What is different about this newest book is that it reveals more attack by predators because of their tiny size.
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 You’re retired.
Hampshire homes to Southern Massachusetts when they learned
to volunteer their services. Matt is an award-winning wildlife Your money isn’t.
of a private nonprofit turtle rehabilitation center there and decided

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 Call or email me today, and we
Turtle Rescue League, and which continue to the present day, are can help walk you through
what motivated the writing of this new book. What they learn as your retirement account options.
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 Sally S Stahl, AAMS™
any kind, so it is difficult for most people to think of them as Financial Advisor
“pets.” But we soon discover that each is an individual with 1851 W Indiantown Rd Ste 106
its own personality, and in these pages we get to meet many Jupiter, FL 33458
turtles who have bonded with their “people,” for example 561-748-7600
following them around the house and even wanting their Sally.Stahl@edwardjones.com
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 “Service is our number one priority”
laboratory rats.
The two women who started the Turtle Rescue League 561-743-0070
in 2009 are Alexxia Bell and her partner, Natasha Nowick,
who is legally blind yet somehow skillfully performs every www.palmspoolservices.com
task both inside the hospital and out among the fields
and ponds during the rescue and release operations. They
have assembled a team of many volunteers throughout
Massachusetts and neighboring states who bring to them
injured turtles in need of their help, knowing of this facility’s
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
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
care that can often take years of treatment.
Many turtle species live in water, even able to stay underwater Expires 10/15/23.
for as long as months at a time through a special breathing process
explained in the book. (Turtles that live solely on land are called
tortoises.) Females, when ready to lay their eggs, instinctively State Licensed & Insured
return to the place on land where they themselves were born. With Serving Palm Beach County CPC # 1457468 • LPG#30099
strong legs they dig holes in the dirt, deposit various numbers