Heron and Turtle

Heron & Turtle

Author and Illustrator Valeri Gorbachev

Philomel 2006

40 pages

Fantasy Children’s book

                I choose this story because the differences of the two animals intrigued me. I’m glad that I picked this book. This is a story about two unlikely best friends. Turtle and Heron lived next door to each other. Turtle and Heron like to do fun activities with each other. However there are certain obstacles that make it challenging for a turtle and a heron to accomplish together. However being the best friends that they are they find a way to overcome the obstacles that are in front of them. What might you ask is the differences that they might have? Well you won’t know unless you read about the two best friends in Heron & Turtle.

                The illustrations in this picture are wonderful. They help tell the story beautifully. The text is easy to read and it follows a normal pattern across the page. The illustrations do go across the pages, and that allows the reader a larger more detailed picture of what the illustrator is trying to depict. The medium used in this book is watercolors, colored pencils, and ink. I think that student’s would be drawn to the pictures as well as how the story is laid out.

                Classroom connections for this story could be character connection. Talking about differences in people, and what a heron is. Most students probably do not know what a heron is. So the teacher could teach a mini lesson on what exactly a heron is. The students then can compare and contrast a heron to another bird that they already knew of such as a flamingo or a pigeon to show that birds are different. The story is all about differences. This is an extremely lesson to teach our students now. They need to know that even though someone is different than us does not mean that we cannot be friends or that they cannot work together to accomplish tasks. The students can write about what makes them different than others. The students have to write something that makes them unique. Once they write what makes them unique the class can put every ones differences together to make a beautiful picture of a flower, or another item. This will also teach morals and kindness to our students. Lastly the students can connect to either the turtle or heron. They then will write about why they chose that character and what makes them alike in certain ways. This also will show that even though people are different we can all be connected.