Little Turtle's Book of the Blue (The Big Book Series)

“Little Turtle swims away from the shore.
The sun is shining, and it’s time for an adventure.”

Little Turtle’s Book of the Blue is the second in Yuval Zommer’s Little Book series, having been released at the same time as “Little Snail’s Book of Bugs,” the first in the series. Zommer’s Little Books are geared toward babies through four year olds and are simpler preludes to his award-winning Big Book series, which are illustrated reference-like books—complete with tables of contents—for elementary-school-aged children.

Little Turtle’s Book of the Blue follows a baby turtle on a swimming journey under the sea, where he meets all kinds of marine animals.

Little Turtle meets dolphins, who “race and spin through the waves”; crabs who “wave and tap their claws”; flying fish who “soar through the sky and flap their fins”—more than 10 unique species of creatures who share her ocean home.

Like Little Snail’s Book of Bugs, Little Turtle’s Book of the Blue is illustrated with a plethora of colorfully patterned scenes packed with creatures to spot and fun words to read aloud.

Also like Little Snail’s Book of Bugs, Little Turtle’s Book of the Blue contains relatively unimaginative prose, the best of which are the repetitive words in all caps that describe each species’ actions, which Little Turtle imitates and which may induce passive word recognition in young minds.

All of Zommer’s Little Books are board books with chunky cardboard pages that are easy for little hands to turn and teeth on. They are certain to assist in the development of fine motor skills like flipping through pages.

Despite what adults may find as its indistinctive style, the illustrations in Little Turtle’s Book of the Blue may make it a favorite book for young children who love the sea.