About the Book: Read about a snapping turtle’s extraordinary journey—and the amazing conservationists who helped give him a second chance. This feel-good, gorgeously illustrated story about beating the odds is the true story of a very lucky turtle. His story began long ago when he was hatched from a very small egg on an autumn day. After decades of traveling between his summer pond behind the firehouse and his winter pond across the street, he never could have guessed that on one October day he would become unlucky . . . The amazing friends and challenges he met along the way are all chronicled in this tribute to the resilience and good luck of a dear turtle friend, a very lucky turtle indeed.

About the Author: To research books, films and articles, Sy Montgomery has been chased by an angry silverback gorilla in Zaire and bitten by a vampire bat in Costa Rica, worked in a pit crawling with 18,000 snakes in Manitoba and handled a wild tarantula in French Guiana. She has been deftly undressed by an orangutan in Borneo, hunted by a tiger in India, and swum with piranhas, electric eels and dolphins in the Amazon. She has searched the Altai Mountains of Mongolia’s Gobi for snow leopards, hiked into the trackless cloud forest of Papua New Guinea to radio-collar tree kangaroos, and learned to scuba dive in order to commune with octopuses, sharks, and giant oceanic manta rays. And for her recent bestseller Of Time and Turtles, she befriended a 42-pound wild snapping turtle named Fire Chief, who shows his extraordinary trust by allowing her to feed him by hand.

About the Illustrator: Matt Patterson received a degree from the Art Institute of Boston in illustration. His vivid, lifelike art has won national and international acclaim, including the Golden Turtle Award and—twice—the Roger Tory Peterson Wild America Art Award. His work has hung in prestigious galleries, museums, and shows, including the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s Birds in Art exhibition, and he is a fellow at the Explorers Club in New York. Matt’s debut picture book, The Book of Turtles, was a Sibert Honor Book.