Hawksbill Promise

John Burroughs Association Riverby Award

NCTE 2020 Notable Poetry List

 

There is a deserted bay on a small island off Antigua where hawksbill turtles crawl ashore at night during the mating season to lay their eggs. Two months later the hatchlings―each weighing less than an ounce―emerge from the sand and scramble to the sea in the moonlight. Only a lucky few survive.

 

Mary Beth Owens was inspired by her admiration and concern for these critically endangered animals to write and illustrate this beautiful book. The narrator―a craggy, ancient jumby tree that stands sentinel over the bay―observes a hawksbill’s arrival by night, her arduous trek to excavate a nest and bury her eggs, her solitary return to the sea, and the later diaspora of her hatchlings. Spare prose complements pages saturated with Caribbean color or brooding in ghostly moonlight.

Written and illustrated by Mary Beth Owens

$17.95 hardcover

9780884484301

PICTURE BOOK/FICTION/NATURE

Ages 5 – 8 • F&P level P; Lexile 930

 

MARY BETH OWENS (Newcastle, ME) is an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books, among them Panda Whispers, Caribou Alphabet, Counting Cranes, and Be Blest: A Celebration of Seasons. She incorporates her passion for the natural world with her enthusiasm for children’s books and teaching art. Research trips have taken her to study caribou in northern Maine, whooping cranes in New Mexico and Texas, sea turtles in Antigua, and marsupials in Australia.

STARRED REVIEW — Youth Services Book Review

STARRED REVIEW — Kids’ BookBuzz