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What is it about turtles that fascinates us? Is it how they hide inside their patterned shells, their wizened faces, their slow determination?

In Turtle Pond, a child and his parents visit their local public garden throughout the year, observing the turtles as they play, dive, feed, bask, climb, hide and doze. James Gladstone's lively prose poem reveals the pleasure and curiosity that come from spending time with the turtles. Karen Reczuch's stunningly beautiful illustrations accurately portray these extraordinary creatures, both in and out of the water, surrounded by lush plants and the changing seasons beyond the greenhouse windows.

An author's note provides more information about turtles, including the Red-eared Slider featured in the book.

James Gladstone is an editor and author of books for children, whose frequent visits to Allan Gardens in Toronto inspired Turtle Pond. He has also written the picture book When Planet Earth Was New, illustrated by Katherine Diemert. James lives in Toronto.

Karen Reczuch has illustrated many award-winning children's books. Loon by Susan Vande Griek won the TD Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-fiction, the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Picture Book Award and the Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable Information Book Award. Karen's other publications include West Coast Wild, winner of the VCLR Information Book Award; The Auction by Jan Andrews, a Governor General's Award finalist; Just Like New by Ainslie Manson, winner of the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award; and Salmon Creek, winner of the BC Book Prize. Karen's work includes scientific, historical and archeological illustration, and has been exhibited internationally.