Old Turtle

Who can resist a story that begins “Once, long, long ago … yet somehow, not so very long …”? Would it not be wonderful if “… all the beings of the world could speak … and understand one another …”?

Beautiful, peaceful … until the argument.

It is the quiet one who speaks the wisest words. Old Turtle, the quiet one, who knows how to stop the argument.

We need a quiet one today.

A perfect melding of story and art, for all ages and all people. Do not miss this one.

Old Turtle is a gorgeous watercolor picture book that's meant at least as much for adults as for children. In pre-human times, an argument begins among the animals over what God is like: higher than the mountains, more sturdy than the rock, farther and brighter than the stars, yet closer to the earth than the ants. Divisions occur when every being claims the imago dei only for him or herself, thereby excluding others' experiences of the divine. So Old Turtle offers this resolution: "God is all that we dream of, and all that we seek, all that we come from and all that we can find." But the truest expression of God comes not with our own realization of the imago dei within ourselves, but when we see it in one another and in all of creation.

This dyed-in-the-wool atheist found Old Turtle preachy, treacly, and heavy-handed. The illustrations are nicely done, though.

In this story, the world begins as a beautiful place, filled with luscious trees and colorful plants and flowers, stuffed with a wide variety of strange and exotic creatures. They begin talking, then discussing, then arguing over who God is. Before they come to blows, Old Turtle offers her wisdom and view of the future. There is peace until God adds people to the earthly creatures, and they (we) go through the same argument - whose definition of God is the accurate or better one? The people argue and hurt each other. Finally, Old Turtle comes to the rescue again.

I found this book very interesting; it was about the concept of God without being any specific religion. In the story, all of nature is arguing about the forces of God, so they are sent a reminder that “God” is all of nature. I appreciated the sentiment of the story and the nature-based spirituality, though I did wonder about applications of this kind of book in a classroom setting.

A beautifully illustrated book about nature and interconnections between all living things. A gentle way to talk about what God means to different individuals. The book can be enjoyed for the watercolor art if the philosophy isn't your cup of tea.

This book is a great reminder that God is different things to different people, and people were made different by God. Some people may see God in a church, but this book explains that God can be anywhere from a babbling brook to the wind through the trees.