Nilo and the Tortoise - Hardcover

Lewin (The Storytellers) describes the night a boy spends stranded on one of the Galapagos Islands, through vivid watercolors. Young Nilo stands on the island's shore, calmly accepting the circumstance that his father's fishing boat has been swept out to sea (the father returns by story's end), and takes the opportunity to explore. Encounters with a hostile sea lion, a fearless bird and a companionable giant tortoise make up the episodic, oddly unsuspenseful tale. The prose fluctuates between being evocative and somewhat stiff, as in the sentence, "The urge to climb upon the [tortoise's] great domed back proved to be irresistible." Lewin's skillful, realistic watercolorsAsome bright and lucid, others misty and restricted in paletteAare more successful. The meandering pace may help create the sense of exploring an extraordinary place, but the story sags without any narrative tension. Ages 5-8 (May)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

An illustrator with a rare gift of bringing faraway places and their inhabitants to vibrant life (most recently in his pictures for Jonathan London's Ali: Child of the Desert) here takes us to the Galapagos Islands. In this fabled Eden of the Pacific where the native animals have no fear of man, we join Nilo, the young son of a fisherman, who explores the terrain while his father tries to repair the engine of his boat. We share a mildly scary encounter with an angry sea lion, come close enough to reach out and touch a small red and black bird and, best of all, meet and climb upon the great domed back of a giant tortoise. It is a charmed environment where all - boy and animals - are in harmony with a benign environment. We share Nilo's day of adventure and are the richer for what the child sees, hears, and dares to do. (Selma G. Lanes, Parents' Choice, 1998) -- From Parents' Choice®